PROJECT C3.1_20 TA ON LAW ON OFFICIAL STATISTICS, GEORGIA

Activity typeOnline TA
TitleTA on law on official statistics, Georgia
ParticipantsGeostat staff members from HR department and legal unit
LocationOnline
TimingApril 2020
Activity codeC3.1_20

This activity was originally planned as a physical mission by the expert to Georgia. However, due to COVID-19, it was decided to start the work online through submissions of emails and online meetings.

Following engagement of the expert by the Contractor in April 2020, he familiarised himself with the detail of the earlier work and reviewed/reported on the comments on the law on official statistics in the 2019 Global Assessment report funded by the EU. The majority of the comments from the Global Assessment were already reflected in the initial draft law produced in 2018 and the concerns about the Geostat Board responsibilities were clarified in a subsequent note by the expert.

In the meantime, a Geostat Working Group led by Boris Ezugbaia, Head of Strategic Planning, Coordination and Communication Department, and including the Geostat lawyer, Tea Edisherashvili, had reviewed the initial draft law and compiled a list of proposed amendments, additions and issues for clarification and comment by the expert.

The expert subsequently discussed these enhancements to the earlier draft law with the Working Group over a series of Zoom meetings and email correspondence, leading to an agreed version of a new draft law on 29 May 2020, which could then be discussed more widely in Georgia.

Geostat will now consult a wide range of stakeholders on the new draft law, an exercise they estimate will take 2-3 months. The expert will remain available to advise Geostat on issues arising from the consultation exercise. Thereafter, Geostat expect to move to the legislative stage before the end of 2020, when the expert will again be available to provide advice.

PROJECT C3.1_21 VIRTUAL GROUP ON THE COORDINATION OF NATIONAL STATISTICAL SYSTEM

Activity typeOnline presentations and discussions (7 x 2 hours)
TitleVirtual group on the coordination of national statistical system
ParticipantsParticipants from the national statistical system such as National Statistical Institute, Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Interior (unlimited number of participants per country)
LocationOnline
TimingJune 2020
Activity codeC3.1_21

The concept of virtual groups is the Contractor’s response to the requirement in the ToR for STEP of “Modern technologies should be actively implemented to share knowledge and communicate with stakeholders”. Eurostat and Contractor have agreed on the establishment of virtual groups as a way to reach this. The concept of virtual groups is described in detail in a note for the third NC meeting.

The virtual group on coordination of the national statistical system was the first virtual group. The creation was accelerated by the COVID-19 lock-down that meant that no physical activities could take place. The virtual group is one activity among others within project C3.1 aiming at improving the coordination of the NSS as well as introducing the European Statistics Code of Practice (ESCoP) in other producers of official statistics (OPOS). The other activities are a workshop, a study visit and a set of TA missions. The partner countries will use examples of best practices from EU member states (MSs) and the United Kingdom (UK) and presentations to draft their own road maps to better coordination of the NSS.

The first round of online presentations was carried out in June 2020 with some more planned for July 2020. Each session was attended by numerous representatives from the national statistical institutes as well OPOS. Especially, the participation of OPOS was important given the subject. Each session sparked many questions and discussions among the participants from both the partner countries as well as the EU member states and the UK. In particular, the role of the law on official statistics was in the centre of the discussions as well as the position of the central banks in the national statistical systems.