According to the Twining Partnership Contract signed between the Agency on Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Joint Venture (Consortium) headed by DevStat, the visit was made from the period of January 22 – 26, 2018 by the International Expert, Mr. Misha Belkindas to the Agency on Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan for the purpose of development of a new National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) for 2018 -2022 years.
With the support of international development organizations, the measures are being taken to strengthen the capacity of the National Statistical System to collect, analyze and use objective, reliable and timely information on the socio-economic development of the country. The new NSDS will be the third five-year strategic plan, developed based on the successful implementation of the multi-year integrated statistical program (MISP) for 2005-2009 and the ongoing implementation of the NSDS for 2015-2018.
The main objective of this Expert mission was to provide guidance to the designing team on the major issues which have to be reflected in the NSDS and to hold discussions with major stakeholders as to gather information to be used in drafting the NSDS and to help to improve the understanding of the role of official statistics in the country and to strengthen the AS relations with the relevant bodies responsible for taking policy decisions.
This mission was focused on discussing preliminary material (SWOT, statistical sector assessment and preliminary proposals on NSDS objectives) with stakeholders. The key issues that should be included in the new NSDS, such as the data revolution, the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), big data, administrative data, etc. were outlined. Priorities for the sectoral statistics of the AS have been identified.
The main issues were discussed by Expert, Mr. Misha Belkindas, that should be included in the new NSDS with users and data producers, representatives of the National Bank of Tajikistan; Agency of the State Service under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan; Ministries: labor migration and employment, education and science, public health and social protection, economic development and trade; Committees: Environmental Protection and Tourism under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. At the end of the meetings, the Ministries and departments of the Republic of Tajikistan presented the responds to a pre-submitted questionnaire to assess the current status of statistical data produced by line ministries and departments, the strategic framework and implementation programs for their inclusion in the new NSDS.
The meetings were also held with representatives of international organizations/development partners: GIZ, FAO, UNDP, UNISEF, UNFPA and the World Bank. During the meetings, the issues on improving statistics, ongoing projects with the Agency on Statistics and priorities for the future NSDS were discussed.
In the end, the structure of the third Program of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics was developed. The work is continuing.
The main objective of the National Strategy for the Development of Official Statistics (NSDS) for 2018-2022 in the Republic of Tajikistan is to identify new roles and functions of official statistics and to propose a strategy and roadmap for the development of official statistics in Tajikistan for a 5-year period with a perspective up to 2030.
