Case study: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

ICBS has decided in 2014 to adopt the ES CoP with the adjustments made to the region. Planning is led by selected principles. The discourse in ICBS includes CoP conceptualization. The first ICBS strategy (2015-2020) is organized around seven prioritized CoP principles, and this method will be adopted for the following strategies.

ICBS is willing to adopt common internal policies and tools derived from the EU Code of Practice and QAF, seminars and workshops are planned to ensure knowledge and acceptance.

The ICBS strategy (2015-2020) focuses on three metadata objectives within the implementation of the fourth CoP principle - commitment to quality:

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Metadata exists everywhere in ICBS. Generally, it is produced independently for each purpose or destination using partial and non-formal guidelines. In some specific domains, metadata production is much more standardized but in general, there is no reuse of metadata across domains or over time and metadata quality is only self-assessed by subject units or individuals.

A (non-exhaustive) list of metadata initiatives already taken in ICBS:

1. Catalogue of questions in surveys.
2. Glossary of concepts.
3. Thesaurus (under construction, for the benefit of the new website).
4. Catalogue of code lists for programmers.
5. Catalogue of variables for programmers.
6. First metadata prepared for SDMX, transferring data and metadata to the international organizations
7. Introductory sections in publication; chapters in the Annual Abstract; subject matter web pages in the website.
8. Metadata for IMF and other international organizations, for example, metadata for SDDS series published in ICBS website.
9. Methodological documents created and published by the subject matter and methodology units, and at their responsibility.

The challenges in the current situation are:

1. Statistical illiteracy of the public at large, difficulties to know what data to use and where to find it, incomplete metadata on the website, users' needs have not been systematically assessed.
2. Transmission of data to international organizations is not cost-effective, (web services and use of SDMX are partial); the production of metadata is perceived as time consuming by subject matter units; there is a lack of common guidelines for its production; staff is not acquainted with standards (DDI, SDMX). Few cross cutting processes are implemented and units are used to work autonomously.
3. Relevant metadata is missing at the process level - for systematic planning, methodology, management and integration; metadata production is not integrated with processes; there is a lack of harmonization of standards and metadata across departments;  De facto metadata (parent variables, dictionaries, reference metadata) do not correspond to DDI, SDMX and international standards in general.
4. Although willing to set up a common integrated metadata system, ICBS is well aware of the challenges in maintaining such metadata updated and active without it being perceived as an administrative burden on the organization.