Methodological issues in the development and use of statistical indicators for International comparisons - ARCHIVED

International comparability of Official Statistics is important for domestic uses within any country. But international comparability matters also for the international uses of statistics; in particular the development and monitoring of global policies and assessing economic and social development throughout the world. Additionally statistics are used by international agencies and bilateral technical assistance programmes to monitor the impact of technical assistance.
The first part of this paper describes how statistical indicators are used by the United Nations and other agencies. The framework of statistical indicators for these purposes is described ans some issues concerning the choice and quality of these indicators are identified.
In the past there has been considerable methodological research in support of Official Statistics particularly by the strongest National Statistical Offices and some academics. This has established the basic methodologies for Official Statistics and has led to considerable developments and quality improvements over time. Much has been achieved. However the focus has, to an extent, been on national uses of Official Statistics. These developments have, of course, benefited the international uses, and some specific developments have also occurred. There is however a need to foster more methodological development on the international requirements. In the second part of this paper a number of examples illustrate this need.