Technical Assistance to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) in Lebanon
DevStat, in consortium with ICON Institute, has been awarded the project “Technical Assistance to the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) in Lebanon” to support official statistics in Lebanon. The technical assistance will cover the fields of National Accounts, social and demographic statistics as well as strengthening the capacity of staff through training. The project will last 18 months, during which technical support will be provided to CAS in order to improve the quantity and quality of statistical information in general.
The assistance is particularly important in the context of the Syrian crisis, which has obliged to about 1.5 million Syrians to move to Lebanon, thus adding stress to the socio-economic conditions of the country. Knowing better, through improved statistics, the living conditions and the impact on the economy will allow the Lebanese Government and the international community to address the needs of the population.
Study visit to European institutions
In April 2016, DevStat organised a study visit to European institutions (DG REGIO, EUROSTAT and ESPON), for delegates from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry for Regional Development and Constructions of the Republic of Moldova. The study visit was organised in the frame of the EuropeAid technical assistance project on “Improved Regional Statistics in the Republic of Moldova”, that DevStat is implementing jointly with other partners. DevStat staff (Flora Carausu and José Cervera) accompanied the study visit.
The working sessions at Eurostat covered the requirements and methodology for regional statistics and modernisation initiatives within the European Statistical System
At DG REGIO, the focus of the discussions targeted the policy-makers as users of statistics. The visit at ESPON complemented the visits by examining the research initiatives and using modern analysis and visualisation tools for evidence-based territorial policies.
The visit benefitted of the experience of DevStat both on development of official statistics and on support to decision-making based on quantitative evidence at the territorial level. Other related projects implemented by DevStat include the support to Eurostat for a study on comparable Labour Market Areas, the management of Local Administrative Units database and the dissemination of regional studies in the Statistical Observatory of the Euro-Mediterranean Arch.
Source: Official photo of the study visit group, Eurostat
Assistance for the organisation of ESTP – The Use of R in Official Statistics
Within the framework of Eurostat’s European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP), DevStat in corsotium with the Lithuanian Department of Statistics and the National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria held a three day course on “The Use of R in Official Statistics” in Vienna on 5, 6 and 7 of April 2016.
On this occasion, for the organisation of the course, DevStat was supported by Statistics Austria. The course was taught by part of their staff, Mr Alexander Kowarik (course leader), Mr Matthias Templ and Mr Bernhard Meindl and it was attended by sixteen participants from several National Statistical Institutes within the European Statistical System (ESS) and from Eurostat.
The objective of the course was to provide participants with basic knowledge about the syntax and basis of the R programming language and to provide an overview of the main packages which are important for the statistical production process. The activity will pay special attention to these packages devoted to management of large databases and the analysis of complex surveys.
The content of the course covered the following topics: essentials of R; descriptive statisitics; data visualisation; programming with R and R in a statistical office.
DevStat thanks the trainers and also the participants for their commitment during the course sessions.