02 September 2020 – PHILIPPINES. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), participated in the 6^th International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics. Undersecretary Dennis S. Mapa, Ph.D., National Statistician and Civil Registrar General, was invited to be part of the panel on Collaboration and Training – National and Regional Perspective in the closing session of the conference with a focus on Global Platform, Global Training, and Global Collaboration. The closing session and its panel discussions were moderated by Ms. Claire Melamed, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

During the session, Usec. Mapa shared PSA's experiences with exploring Big Data, Citizen-Generated Data, and Administrative-based statistics in support of official statistics. The PSA is committed to exploring these emerging fields in order to address the urgent need for more timely and relevant statistics in the country especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Usec. Mapa underscored that international collaboration is crucial to pursue these initiatives and highlighted that in the recently concluded 7^th Session of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics (read article here), the Philippines supported the proposal to feature big data for official statistics in the future work of the Committee and encourages sharing of experiences, expertise, and best practices among the regions.

In his closing remarks, he emphasized the need for a more holistic approach in modernizing a national statistical office (NSO). This covers not only the technical capacity and capabilities of an NSO but also its “soft skills” which are vital to enhance productivity, teamwork, retention of employees, workforce satisfaction, leadership, and client/customer satisfaction. Usec. Mapa further noted that while technical expertise is critical, NSOs need people who grasp how to collaborate, communicate, and most importantly, how to understand the needs of the clientele.

With this participation, the PSA continues to share its good practices on the application of Big Data as it strives to be a world-class authority in statistics.

To know more about PSA, visit www.psa.gov.ph for updates and information.

- International Cooperation Unit, Office of the National Statistician