The 8th Expert Meeting on Statistics for Sustainable Development Goals and the 2024 Workshop on Statistics for SDGs are taking place on 15-17 October 2024 in Tirana, Albania. The National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus is represented at these events by Ms Elena Kukharevich, First Deputy Chairperson.
During the Workshop session dedicated to the lessons learned from providing statistics for SDGs Elena Kukharevich shared the experience of the Republic of Belarus in building an efficient system of monitoring the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
‘In the SDG monitoring system Belstat acts as a national focal point. With this status, the statistics bodies have significantly expanded their sphere of influence on information flows within the country: the coordinating role is no longer limited to the statistical system and has begun to cover a wider data ecosystem of the country. The modernisation of national statistical legislation has largely contributed to this. Thus, the legislation updated in 2023 gave to the state statistics bodies the right to obtain any data from all state information systems and resources free of charge, including through remote access, and the owners of administrative databases and information systems are obliged to ensure the necessary composition, structure and level of detail of the information obtained for statistical purposes. Today statisticians are involved in the development of new and modernisation of existing information systems, which allows for excluding parallel queries and enables to reuse the data already collected in the country. By applying the provided instruments, Belstat ensures the necessary disaggregation of data and elimination of existing data gaps. Thus, more than 40 per cent of the indicators of the national SDG indicator list are produced using administrative data, which significantly reduces the burden on respondents and data providers and allows for saving resources on obtaining the necessary information. At the same time, the wide use of administrative data in the SDG monitoring process requires control of their quality and assessment of the reliability of their sources. Belstat has made a big step in this direction: the country has already developed approaches to building a quality framework of administrative data,’ noted the First Deputy Chairperson.
In addition, Elena Kukharevich spoke about the successful experience of Belstat in working with non-traditional data sources to track the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
‘As of today, 10 SDG indicators from the national list are calculated using spatial data. And for some indicators such sources became the only way to obtain information.’
‘By successfully fulfilling the role of data steward, Belstat has ensured compliance with the international methodology for 70 per cent of the indicators of the national list, calculated both directly by Belstat and by other government agencies that are responsible for the implementation of SDGs,’ summarised Elena Kukharevich.
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