Capacity Development Tools

The objective of the Manual is to produce and disseminate a set of methodology sheets or metadata for the collection or compilation of all environment statistics of the Basic Set of Environment Statistics embedded in the FDES 2013. These methodology sheets offer detailed and in-depth methodological guidance including definitions, classifications, statistical methods for collection and/or compilation, dissemination and main uses of the sets of the respective environment statistics.

The Basic Set of Environment Statistics is a comprehensive, but not exhaustive, set of statistics designed to support countries developing national environment statistics programmes by helping them make decisions on priorities for statistical development. It is embedded in the FDES 2013 and consists of 458 individual statistics organized into the structure of the FDES (components, sub-components and topics). The Basic Set is divided into three tiers, based on the level of relevance, availability and methodological development of the statistics.

UNSD, in collaboration with the Expert Group on Environment Statistics, has developed the Environment Statistics Self-Assessment Tool (ESSAT) in support of the FDES 2013. The purpose of the ESSAT is to assist countries in both developing their environment statistics programmes and collecting their own data on the environment, and to assess the state of environment statistics and the needs for their development at the national level consistent with the scope of the FDES 2013.

This Handbook aims at promoting a better understanding of the LDC category and the benefits derived from membership therein. It contains a comprehensive explanation of the criteria, procedures and methodology used by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) for establishing which countries are eligible for inclusion in, or recommended for graduation from, the LDC category.

The present manual is targeted primarily at statisticians working in national statistical systems and can be used as resource material for training in gender statistics. The manual should help statisticians (a) to improve the coverage of gender issues in statistics, as well as the quality of statistics, on a wide range of topics; (b) to incorporate a gender perspective into the design of surveys and censuses, by taking into account gender issues and gender bias in measurement; and (c) to improve data analysis and data presentation and to deliver gender statistics in a format that is easy…

The Handbook on Economic Tendency Surveys provides best practices and harmonized principles on how to conduct economic tendency survey from sample selection, questionnaire design, survey questions, survey execution, to data processing and dissemination. It also provides examples of uses of these surveys, for example, for composite tendency indicators. These surveys provide qualitative information that cannot be collected using other quantitative statistical methods. They also serve as an integral part of an early warning system because they provide information about the occurrence and…

The “Compilation Guide on Land Estimation” provides conceptual and practical guidance to statisticians concerning the estimation and valuation of land and to increase international comparability. The guide clarifies theoretical concepts and proposes a breakdown of land into categories so that international comparisons can be more easily made. It also discusses possible data sources, elaborates direct and indirect estimation methods and addresses several special estimation cases. The guide presents (an elaboration of) the information that is available on this topic in the 2008 SNA and in…

The principle of the change of economic ownership required by 2008 SNA / ESA 2010 and BPM6 presents particular challenges in the case of recording foreign trade reported by non-residents. Recommendations for compilers of national accounts and balance of payments statistics were elaborated, with a focus on practical steps to identify and measure the different possible cases. These recommendations are published in a note on Eurostat's website. The Guide can also be downloaded from Eurostat at the following link (…

The “Guide on Measuring Global Production”, which follows on a previous publication entitled The “Impact of Globalization on National Accounts”, was finalized and published by the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) in 2015. The new Guide provides comprehensive recommendations to compilers of national accounts, balance of payments and related economic statistics on the collection, production and analysis of data related to global production arrangements. It presents the experience of different countries in producing statistics on global production and also identifies a number of…

The “Guidelines on Statistical Business Registers” (SBR), published by ECE in 2015, provide practical guidance and recommendations on the establishment and maintenance of statistical business registers. The Guidelines consist of 12 chapters – an introductory chapter followed by substantive chapters dealing with the roles of the SBR; coverage; statistical units and their characteristics; data sources; maintenance; frame methodology; dissemination; quality; organizational, database and other IT issues; and topics for further work and research. The Guidelines include also a number of annexes…