Rosstat launched an international expert platform on World Statistics Day

The first global platform for education and consulting in statistics in Russia was officially launched on October 20. Presentation of the International Center for Statistical Expertise Centrostat took place on October 20 at the International Multimedia Press Center “Russia today”.

“Rosstat is often criticized in our country, whereas the global statistical system recognizes our statistics as authoritative and demanded,” - opened the event Pavel Malkov, the head of Rosstat. “We’ve been implementing dozens of initiatives and projects to develop statistics across regions. Centrostat is designed to systematize these efforts, to become a new trigger and furthermore, to bring together international experts in order to address new challenges as well as to make statistics an operational and reliable tool for decision-making in the modern world”.

Centrostat is a joint project of the Federal State Statistics Service, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the World Bank and the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP).

According to Mr. Jonahtan Palmer, Centrostat concept co-designer and World Bank international expert, the focus of the center’s activities is on the need to build the capacity of official statistics entities. “Developing capacity to produce will involve the development of new methodologies and indicators as well as providing training and technical assistance. Developing Capacity to use statistics will include the promotion of statistical literacy and the use of evidence in policy formulation, planning and monitoring”, - presented Jonathan Palmer.

Centrostat activities involve three directions. First of all, the center is an extensive statistical knowledge base available both in Russian and English.

According to Mr. Renaud Seligmann, Country Director for the Russian Federation, Europe and Central Asia, World Bank, - Rosstat has the expertise and best practices in statistical methodology and data collection on demography, national accounts, agriculture, poverty, environmental accounting. The establishment of the international center will allow Rosstat to share its experience with foreign colleagues.

Centrostat will serve as a special platform for statistical theorists and practitioners that enables them to communicate, get acquainted, exchange innovative methods and approaches”, - noted Mr. Renaud Seligmann.

Another area of Centrostat activity is educational services. Basic, introductory, advanced courses in the most popular areas of statistics will be conducted online and offline.

The eLearning platform as well as the knowledge base is intended for professional community and for all who are interested in statistics.

Centrostat will not solve all the accumulated problems, but it is in our power to launch educational projects for schoolchildren, journalists, politicians, professional statisticians”, - commented Pavel Malkov.

According to founders of Centrostat concept, the center can also act as a contractor for delivery of technical assistance in conducting research, introducing innovative solutions for collecting and processing data.

“Through Centrostat, Rosstat and statistical system of Russia have a space and platform to experiment and embrace the tech and data revolution including big data, machine learning and AI, as key drivers for change”, - assured Mr. Renaud Seligmann.

“The Russian Federation, through its national statistical office – Rosstat - has played a leading role in the international statistical community. The expertise of Rosstat in domains of statistics is of great value for Asia-Pacific, including countries with which Rosstat has historically strong ties such as those of Central Asia. Centrostat can now also play an important role in strengthening the capacity of countries, especially those without national statistical training institutes or capacities, to produce and use statistics for their national decision making processes and help ensure these are aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, - commented the launch of Centrostat Mr. Kaveh Zahedi, ESCAP Deputy Executive Secretary.

So far the agreements on the partner training programs and their translation into Russian have been reached between Centrostat and the UN Statistics Division. The project on demographic statistics is being implemented with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Five training courses on SNA 2008, Sustainable Development Goals, SEEA were developed jointly with ESCAP. The pilot online course “National statistical system design” was launched. Centrostat online training platform has been running in test mode.

“There are still many challenges ahead of Centrostat. I wish good luck and success to the center and its team! ”- said Pavel Malkov to the Centrostat staff.

The programs and projects of the Center are available at the Centrostat official website.

Video presentation of the International Center for Statistical Expertise Centrostat is available here.