Surveys on access to and use of ICT in Oman

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Two years after having successfully supported the Information Technology Authority (ITA) of the Sultanate of Oman in analyzing the data of the 2011 Survey on ICT usage in the business sector, DevStat has been contracted to support the implementation of the 2013 Survey on access to and use of ICT by households and individuals.
The services provided, ranging from preparing sample design and survey questionnaire to conducting the data analysis and ensuring the harmonization of the data with international standards, covered all stages of the survey. About 200 surveyors were mobilized through a local company and about 11.000 households visited, interviewing more than 80.000 individuals.
DevStat supports decision-makers in assessing and improving the penetration of ICT through evidence-based policies. Besides Oman, DevStat’s director has trained on ICT statistics experts from other Arab, Latin-American, African, Asia-Pacific and Caribbean countries, being the author and reviser of the UNCTAD and ITU manuals on the subject (links below).

ITU, Manual for Measuring ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/hhmanual/2009/material/HHManual2009.pdf

UNCTAD Manual for the Production of Statistics on the Information Economy:
http://unctad.org/en/Docs/sdteecb20072_en.pdf

In the photo above, the training of surveyors in ITA headquarters, Muscat, Oman

European Modernisation Workshop – Final Report now online!

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devstat_logo_modes_2014The European modernisation Workshop, organised around the ESSnet and ESS.VIP programmes took place in Valencia on 23-24 January 2014. The workshop was organised by Eurostat with the support of a project consortium headed by DevStat.

The final report of the ESSnet/ESS.VIP workshop Valencia 2014: Modernisation of European Official Statistics has now been published online. Please, visit http://www.cros-portal.eu/content/valencia-technical-workshop-report to download the document.

Statistical training for the Libyan government

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map-libyaLast December, DevStat has signed a contract with the Bureau of Statistics and Census of Libya to provide statistical training services to its staff. Within this Framework contract, DevStat is organizing 14 training courses in the areas of business statistics, quality, dissemination, transport statistics, etc. Within this program, from the 26th to 30th May, in cooperation with The National Statistical Institute of Romania, a training course in Business Statistics is organized in Bucharest.

 

Big Data Event, Rome 2014

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devstat_ess-big-data_2014Last March the Big Data Event organised by Eurostat with the support of DevStat Servicios de Consultoría Estadística (as a leader) in consortium with ISTAT, Dialogic, Verbivis and the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Hochschule took place in Rome.

The Event was a complete success, during the two days of conferences we received at Quirinale Hotel more than 107 participants from 27 different countries arrived from international organisations as ECB, UNSD, UNECE, OECD, The World Bank, Berkeley University and the Universities of Pisa, Napoli, La Sapienza, Durham, London and GENES.

During the Event we talked about the Scheveningen Memorandum, Impact of Big Data on official statistics, opportunities and challenges, Methodology, quality and accreditation, learning and development, strategy, programming and planning, IT and security and shifting paradigm in official statistics.

Next step for Eurostat is to follow-up the implementation of the memorandum by adopting an ESS action and plan a roadmap by mid-2014.
At DevStat we are now looking for a new Event to organise.

Survey about the administrative burden in Romanian enterprises

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logo-podcaDevStat has designed a survey about the administrative burden in Romanian enterprises. The survey was executed in 2 phases and was organized within the framework of an technical assistance project financed by the European Social Fund to improve the business environment.

DevStat also implemented a training session to staff of the Ministries of Economy and of Employment, National Statistical Institute and other institutions.

José Cervera, director of DevStat presented the project in the international conference held on 10th April.

More information is available here.

In-House Training on Advanced Statistical Analysis

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devstat_in-house-training_2014At DevStat, we value continuous education to improve our staff capabilities and skills. This week, our junior team followed an in-house course on advanced statistical analysis taught by Prof. Iván Arribas of University of Valencia, a former member of DevStat. We recently completed the analysis of two surveys in the Sultanate of Oman (on ICT access in households and use) and Romania (on the administrative burden for businesses).

Community Statistical Programme 2008-2012

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Eurostat reported in December 2013 to the European Parliament and The Council on the implementation of the Community Statistical Programme 2008-2012 referring to a report prepared by DevStat in consortium with CSIL. The evaluation of the 5-year work programme of Eurostat, which was awared to our consortium, was finalised in August 2013, after reviewing the achievements with respect to 130 objectives related to hundreds of activities implemented on the basis of annual programmes. The evaluation was done by combining desk research, in-depth interviews with EU statistics users, a sample of National Statistical Institutes and focus groups with Eurostat staff. The evaluation report has been published by Eurostat and is available here.

DG Mare – Missions to Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Portual and Spain

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At the request of the European Commission (DG MARE), experts from a consortium led by DevStat carried out a mission in March 2014 to Bucharest and Constanta (Romania) to evaluate the implementation of the fisheries data collection programme. This includes the verification by a team of biologists, fisheries economists, IT experts and statisticias, of systems to collect statistics on the fishing fleet, the aquaculture and fish processing industry, as well as the collection of biological data on the species caught in the Black Sea. This mission is part of a framework contract with the DG MARE, under which missions to Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain were already implemented, to be followed by Lithuania and UK.

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Big Data – The programme is now online!

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Please, visit http://cros-portal.eu/content/big-data-event-2014 for additional information on the ESS Big Data Event – Rome, 31 March – 1 April 2014.

The event will include expert lectures on the themes:

  • Opportunities and methodological challenges of Big Data for official statistics
  • Big Data technologies and platforms for official statistics as well as highly interactive parallel sessions aiming to tackle issues identified in the Scheveningen Memorandum regarding topics such as:
    • Strategic programming and planning – How to elaborate a transition plan to integrate Big Data in Official Statistics production
    • Learning, development and Human Resources – How to elaborate university curricula for tomorrow’s Data Scientists? How to train today’s statisticians and IT specialists so as to make them prepared to cope with the data deluge?
    • IT – Which platforms are useful for managing Big Data for official statistics
    • Methodology

The draft Programme is now online at: http://www.cros-portal.eu/content/big-data-event-2014-programme.

Big Data Event

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Modernization of European Official Statistics through Big Data methodologies and the best practices: ESS Big Data Event, is planned in Rome (Italy) for 31 March-1 April 2014.
The Event will be organised by Eurostat with the support of DevStat (as a leader) in consortium with ISTAT, Dialogic, Verbivis and the Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Hochschule.

In many sectors of society, Big Data is playing an increasingly important role. In the private sector, Big Data offers many companies the opportunity to increase their efficiency, for example by giving greater insight into customer demand. While there does not seem to be one single definition of what Big Data is (or is not) there seems to be a consensus that Big Data may be of real interest for Official Statistics.

For further information, please visit: http://cros-portal.eu/content/big-data-event-2014