Human Development Reports - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

GCC Qatar-led Technical Workshop on Measuring Human Development

Doha, Qatar
21-23 January 2008

GCC Qatar-led Technical Workshop on Measuring Human Development

The Government of Qatar has a GCC mandate to lead sub-regional work in the area of statistics. As such, the Government of Qatar has approached the Human Development Report Office and the Regional Bureau for Arab States for technical support to organize a GCC technical workshop on statistics and measuring human development.

The Government of Qatar organized the regional statistics workshop, which took place from 21-23 January 2008. The event complemented other work being facilitated by UNDP and its partners in the region in support of the MDGs, as well as the 2009 GCC Human Development Report.

There is a need in particular to:

1. increase use of disaggregated data to foster evidence based, people-centred planning;
2. enhance human development analysis on which policy proposals are based; and
3. establish a better understanding of differences between national, regional and global data.

Scope and Objective

The objective of the workshop was to increase the quality and policy relevance of statistical work in the GCC region. Innovative measurement work were encouraged, while adhering to statistical standards. Through technical guidance, substantive exchanges and the sharing of experiences, the workshop sought to develop the competencies to support human development policies based on comprehensive and objective data.

The workshop drew on guidelines put forth by the recently published UNDP Statistical Primer on HD Measurement, as well as other materials and experience specific to the GCC region. The Primer follows the lines of the HDR Toolkit, providing guidelines, basic statistical principles, country examples and concrete tools.

The workshop aimed to:

• propose solutions to existing methodological and data challenges in the region;
• discuss the roles of national, regional, and international data collectors and users, and challenges involving standardized data, their timeliness and comparability;
• promote adherence to a set of minimum standards and guidelines for the use of statistics in HDRs and related national policy research, analysis and advocacy;
• discuss the evolution, use and limitations of the four global HDR indices (the HDI, HPI-1 and HPI-2, GDI and GEM) as well as other indices to capture country needs;
• encourage new approaches for measuring HD by sharing innovative practices drawing on research and experiences from region and wider statistical community;
• share strategies on the use of HD data for outreach and advocacy purposes.

Target Audience

This initiative was a face-to-face community-building initiative for national statistical specialists, as well as members of the international statistics community.

The workshop brought together:

• Government officials from GCC National Statistics Offices
• UNDP HDR focal points
• GCC HDR team statisticians and social scientists
• Representatives of key UN HQ Agencies responsible for data collection (e.g. WB, UNESCO, UNDESA Population Division, UNICEF, WHO)

Approach

The workshop was conducted over a three day period of both plenary and smaller breakout sessions held simultaneously.

Discussions focused on:

• Statistical Principles in HDRs: challenges and related solutions [simultaneous sessions on addressing data gaps (national vs. international data), data reliability, overlap with MDG work, use of qualitative data, disaggregation]
• Composite Indices: uses and limitations of country specific HD indices
• Challenges involving standardized data, their timeliness and comparability , particularly by different data collectors and users at national and international levels;
• Monitoring human development and assessing inequalities along thematic lines – economic growth, migrant labour, environment, gender, governance, etc.)
• Advocating for change (using data in communication work).

Expected Outputs

• Comprehension of the statistical principles and guidelines outlined in the Primer
• Agreement on a set of specific action to be taken related to sharing the knowledge gained with their national counterparts (training of trainers)
• Agreement on the role of as a tool to strengthen ongoing data work
• Framework in place to monitor adherence to statistical standards, which will contribute to increased statistical quality of HDRs and related national research
• Capacity of experts involved in the GCC Regional HDR, and other national HDRs from the region increased
• Experience gained from this workshop will also be used to plan additional capacity development events in the region related to HDR, MDGs, and data.

Documents available for download:

• Workshop summary [246 KB]
• Agenda [80 KB]
• List of participants [172 KB]
  

News article on the event: Meet on development index begins Gulf Times, 22 Jan 2008

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