High-Level Group for the Modernization of Official Statistics (HLG-MOS)
Strategy for achieving the Vision
The HLG-MOS is a group of committed Chief Statisticians who are actively steering the modernisation of statistical organisations. Their mission is to work together to identify trends, threats, and opportunities in modernising statistical organisations. It provides a collaborative platform for experts in statistics to develop strategies and solutions in a flexible and agile way.
To respond to the needs of statistical organizations in a timely and effective manner, HLG-MOS must ensure that it remains adaptive to the changing environment and shifting landscape of challenges and opportunities. The HLG-MOS vision defined in 2018 outlines four focus areas:
- Active engagement
- A trusted data authority
- A service oriented approach
- An agile and adaptive culture
Strategy for achieving the Vision
The following paragraphs describe the strategies employed by the HLG-MOS to achieve its vision
Demonstrate leadership by defining priorities
The HLG-MOS meet each year in March in the margins of the UN Statistical Commission meeting. At this meeting, the HLG-MOS discuss the challenges and opportunities facing statistical organisations openly. They share learnings from successes and failures, and review the HLG-MOS vision to ensure its relevance. The members discuss latest trends and demonstrate leadership by identifying potential collaboration opportunities and priorities related to the modernisation of statistical organisations.
The priorities identified in March are shared with the Conference of Europeans Plenary session in June. Comments and feedback are sought from the Plenary Session.
Ensure work is community driven
The priorities are released to the modernisation community in July/ August. As the work undertaken under the auspices of the HLG-MOS is a collaboration of the willing and able, proposals for future work are welcomed from all.
Proposals for future work are requested to be submitted by September. The HLG-MOS Executive Board reviews the proposals against the HLG-MOS vision and priorities. Feedback is provided to ensure future work proposals are in alignment with the HLG-MOS vision and priorities.
In November, the outputs from the current year (for example, outputs from projects and modernisation groups) are presented at the Workshop on the Modernisation of Official Statistics. At the same meeting, the future work proposals are presented to the community. The meeting participants discuss the proposals and propose modifications to them to better suit the community. At the end of the meeting, the participants recommend two projects to be undertaken in the coming year. This process ensures that work undertaken by the HLG-MOS is community driven.
Provide mechanisms for a flexible, result oriented and agile approach
The HLG-MOS supports a number of mechanisms to progress multilateral collaborations that contribute to the achievement of the HLG-MOS vision. These include:
- Strategic Issues – On strategic issues, collaboration between chief statisticians is most beneficial. Chief Statistician Inspiration Sessions will be held on selected topics to exchange in a small and informal high level setting experiences, lessons learned, successes and failures with the goal of reflection and inspiration.
- Innovation Stream – The Blue Skies Thinking Reports provide an environment scan on selected topics. These brief papers answer four key questions – what is the topic, what is the value for official statistics, what is already being done, what are the opportunities for further collaboration.
- Projects – Each calendar year, 1 – 2 topics are chosen to be progressed as HLG-MOS sponsored projects. The money contributed to the UNECE Modernisation Trust Fund is used to hire a project manager/s and cover their travel costs. These projects have a strict twelve month limit and are expected to produce a significant contribution to achieving the HLG-MOS vision. Examples out project outputs include the Common Statistical Production Architecture, as well as the Generic Statistical Information Model.
- Modernisation Groups – These groups consist of experts focused on particular areas of interest. The time spent by these experts are an in-kind contribution from statistical organisations. Each year, the group has 1 – 3 task teams that create smaller, more detailed outputs to help achieve the HLG-MOS vision.
