INSTAT National Institute of Statistics of Albania

The aim of the foreign assistance is to provide support to countries in their efforts to approximate their official statistics to EU and international statistical standards, to produce accurate, comparable and reliable data and enabling evidence-based decision-making, monitoring and progress measurement. It is somehow easy to describe the role of the foreign assistance in the activity, development and governance of INSTAT. International assistance has been a substantial source contributing on improving not only financing capabilities of the Institute but also in helping to promote the institutional technical/administrative capacities and human development as well.

The support provided by all the donors plays an important role in the development and progress of INSTAT and NSS as well, not only in the quantity/volume/quality of the tasks undertaken, but also contributing in speeding up the pace of the integrating process of the country. Because of the lack of an existing strategy and lack of monitoring programme/system with defined specific indicators, it seems not easy actually to measure the impact of IPA and other statistical cooperation programmes on the progress of specific statistical domains, institutional development and capacity building within INSTAT or Albanian NSS. The presentation of INSTAT will address the results in terms of outputs of the foreign assistance programmes on the development of each statistical domain and institutional infrastructure. The external aid is delivered through national and regional statistical programmes instruments

External financial contribution on national programmes The European Union is the major donor in statistics, followed by Sweden (Sida), Switzerland (SDC), UN. IMF, WB and other donors are not represented in the graph since their support is basically TA expertise.

General benefits from the external aid and TA Additional financial and technical support; Harmonising the official statistical processes with the EU and international requirements; Expand variety and improve quality and timelines of the official statistical production; Lobbing/raise awareness on the importance of statistics and influencing decision making and action (also in terms of investment in statistics); Improve institutional governance and infrastructure; Capacity building through transfer of knowledge, training, in-the-job practicing, statistical events, exchange and share experiences, etc; Building partnerships and networking between the statistical offices and statistical community; Increase visibility of the NSI within and outside of the country

Social Statistics and demography IPA 2009 TA and direct Grant to INSTAT (Support for PHC 2011) Revision of the PHC legal framework (The PHC Law amended and sublegal acts issued) Implementation of the Population and Housing Census 2011 in Albania in alignment with the CES recommendations and standards. Fields of the TA include : Census Planning and Methodology; GIS and Mapping; Census operations and logistics; Communication and monitoring; Data processing and metadata; Evaluation; data analysis and dissemination; Overall management structure of the PHC (Census Unit, field structure, Regional PHC Units personal, data entry personnel, etc, around 12.600 staff) Dissemination of the final Census results at the national and prefectural level Increase analytical capacity-building and in-depth post-census analyses (publication of “Population and population dynamics, New demographic horizons?”, “Quality dimensions of the 2011 PHC in Albania”, “Commuting from home to work”, Census Atlas, “A new urban-rural classification of Albanian population”). Capacity building of the internal staff and the field personnel (12.517)

Social Statistics and demography SDC, USAID, UNFPA, WHO, AECID-Spain Funding of the Albanian DHS 2008 – 2009 SDC assistance on the PHC 2011 Implementation and analyses of the post-enumeration survey (PES) Analytical capacity-building and in-depth post-census analyses (preparation/printing of the publication on “Communes and Municipalities Typology “, “Population Projections 2011-2031”, “Dwelling and Living Conditions”, “Migration in Albania”, “Labour Market Dynamics” Organisation of public conferences to launch the census results and publications Increasing capacity in designing, conducting and communicating statistical analyses at INSTAT (an internship abroad for INSTAT staff was organized in Geneva by the Consortium of “Institute of Demographic Studies at the University of Geneva” with the “Swiss Forum for Migration at the University of Neuchatel” IPA Multi-beneficiary Capacity building through training and participation in the WG, meetings, study-visits, etc

Social Statistics and demography Sida Publication of “Women and Man in Albania 2013” and “Women and Man in Albania 2014” UN Agencies Funding of the Albanian DHS 2008 – 2009 -WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA Management Unit, Preparatory work, consultations on the PHC 2011 - UNDP Communication and publicity campaign of the PHC 2011 - UNFPA Survey and publication on “return migration and reintegration in Albania” - IOM Study on Health Behavior in School Children – UNICEF & UNFPA In-depth analysis on youth and ageing in Albania, based on Census data - UNFPA & UN WOMEN "Support the Government in producing and launching the 4th periodic CEDAW report“ – UN Women Regional conference on gender statistics. Preparation/publication of “women and man in Albania 2014” and “Gender Perspectives in Albania”. - UN Women

Economic statistics IPA 2007 Carried out Economic enterprise census, 2010. Updating the business register of enterprises; Improvement of identification and economic variables; Set-up the local unit register; Implementation of NACE rev.2 in Business Register. UN agencies Organization of pilot project in private companies and public institution for R&D and Innovation statistics – UNESCO Organization of survey in “Bribery and crime affected Albanian businesses” in country and region level - UNODC Sida Prices and Business statistics - improvement of methodology of existing statistical activity and provide the methodology of new activities as well the increase level of compliancy with Statistical European requirement. - Sida National project Communication and publicity of the Census of Enterprises - SIDA – direct funding to INSTAT Networking, capacity building, methodology courses, workshops, training, summer school, seminars. - Sida regional project

Economic statistics IPA multi beneficiary 2008-2012 Supported work on PPP, HICP, External trade statistics, Structural Business Statistics, Energy statistics, Short term statistics. External Trade Statistics Installation of Eurotrace system, a software needed to facilitate the processing of Customs data in order to produce International Trade in Goods Statistics faster and better preparation of the ITGS (International Trade in Goods Statistics) Strategy Handbook and the National Report on ITG(International Trade in Goods) improvements of International Trade in Goods Statistics quality and increase of indicators produced HICP: Implementation of HICP standards in the CPI and increased compliance with HICP regulations; SBS: Assessment of compliancy with European standard identification of problems, preparation of SBS quality report, training on NACE rev.2 . STS: Assessment of compliancy with European standard, identification of problems, use of administrative data sources, implementation of NACE rev.2. Energy statistics: Assess the situation, cooperation between actors and assessment of renewable energy situation.

Agriculture and Environment Statistics Agriculture statistics IPA 2007 Census of Agriculture Holdings carried out according to the EU standards. Designing the methodological framework of the agricultural holdings census; design and printing of the questionnaires and training materials, training of INSTAT, Ministry of Agriculture and field structure, Up-dating of the list of farms, data processing and tabulation at national and prefecture level, designing of a plan of post-census activities to be conducted after the establishment of the farm register and the implementation of other related surveys. Statistical Farm Register established according to the EU standards serving as a sampling frame for conducting agriculture surveys among the period of two consecutive agriculture censuses. SIDA – direct funding Communication and publicity of the CAH Storage and transportation of the CAH materials Financial covering of the field structure Pilot census of agriculture holdings

Agriculture and Environment Statistics IPA 2013 Enhance institutional capacities in the production and usage of Agricultural statistics IPA multi-beneficiary  2011 & 2012 Price statistics in agriculture Creation of the survey on output prices in agriculture methodology. Creation of the system for calculation of absolute prices for agricultural output and indices.   Creation of the survey on input prices in agriculture methodology. 

Agriculture and Environment Statistics IPA MB 2011 Pilot projects on urban solid waste and industrial waste in Albania. Developed survey methodology on urban solid waste survey and testing in 4 municipalities; Capacity building through training on urban solid waste, training on water statistics and water balance, improved performance on reporting of this statistics for Albania. Sida national TA missions on environment statistics and environmental accounts. Assessment and fact findings on the environment statistics and designing of the sector’s programme for the next years. First steps in the designing of the environmental accounts in Albania. Capacity building through in-the-job training and participation in the trainings/seminars Sida Regional Capacity building through participation in the statistical events on environment

Agriculture and Environment Statistics IPA multi-beneficiary  2011 &  2012 Annual Crop Statistics - Improvement of the quality of the current crop statistics in items - Improvement of the questionnaire of the Annual Agricultural Survey. - analyse the results from the Annual Agricultural Survey (AAS) 2013 and production of  data sets on annual crop statistics according to Regulation (EC) 543/2009. - to complete and analyze the time series of crops. Livestock and fisheries statistics - Specialized survey on slaughterhouses activity (industrial production of meat) – number of slaughtered animals, live and carcass weight by type and category of livestock (slaughterhouses for red meat & slaughterhouses for white meat) - Survey on number of livestock at 1 December – (slaughtering on the farm) – number of slaughtered animals (bovines, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry)  and average live weight (kg) - Slaughtered animals on the farm per month - Special survey on the activity of slaughterhouses (First survey in the beginning of 2014 and Exhaustive survey based on list of slaughterhouses and butcher shops)

National Accounts IPA 2007 IMF improvement of statistical sources and methodology for annual National Accounts estimations development of methodology for the compilation of supply-use tables (SUT) the estimation of annual data of GDP by institutional sector accounts improvement of methodology for the estimation of Non-Observed Economy (NOE) in GDP the improvement of methodology for the compilation of the Quarterly GDP estimations of regional GDP data (NUTS II level) produced according to Eurostat standards IMF Project on Capacity Building for Sustainable Compilation of Real Sector Statistics in Eastern Europe” Improving the accuracy of the annual and quarterly GDP estimates Improved estimates for the financial sector in the annual and quarterly GDP;  improved coverage of the GDP Compilation of the Government Financial Statistics (GFS) in Albania GFS under ESA 2010 requirements. Register of general government units disseminated. Several TA in the Development of National Accounts Statistics.

National Accounts Ad hoc mission under IPA 2011 Government sector accounts statistics, preparation for future EDP reporting Setting up the basis for the efficient and timely flow of source data between MOF and INSTAT at the required level of detail, terms, and format adherent to international standards; Improved methodology and compilation procedures elaborated for government sector accounts; Implementation of NACE Rev.2 and back-cast of National Accounts Implementation of NACE Rev.2 in national accounts for years 2010-2012, calculation and assessments of the results; Methodology and compilation procedures elaborated for back-cast of time series; IPA 2012 Multi-beneficiary the first experimental results of GG sector accounts and EDP tables are done in collaboration with MoF and BoA. The estimations still a need substantial improvements on methodological issues, data coverage and institutional unit classifications. Increased knowledge about ESA 2010, information on what is excepted to be done for improving the quality of GG sector and sub-sectors estimates.

National Accounts IPA MB Projects IPA 2007 Multi Beneficiary - GNI Inventory IPA 2008 Multi Beneficiary- Improvement of national accounts compilation in 4 domains: Gross fixed capital formation Inventories Consumption of fixed capital Value added in the service sectors IPA 2009 Multi Beneficiary improve the basis of the annual and quarterly constant price estimates. Double deflation (25x25) of value added Double deflation (60x60) of value added Update and extend the description of the sources and methods for the part of annual and quarterly constan price estimates.

National Accounts IPA 2011 Multi-beneficiary Improving methods for FISIM Output of central bank Recording of the output of non-life insurance services Mineral exploration and evaluation Boundary between private /public/ government sectors Treatment of government issued permits ESA 2010 roadmap Compilation of trade output using trade margins Improvements for Insurance; Improvements for Private Health & Education; Taxes, subsidies in constant prices; Estimation of CPC, Sales for GGFCE; improvement of GFCF; constant price estimation; Alternative temporal disaggregation technique for benchmarking; Writing QNA inventories Expert assessments of strengths and weaknesses of the QNA calculations Analysis: Population and employment – data availability; and Analysis of sampling method used for VAT data

Household Surveys IPA 2013 Enhance institutional capacities in the production and usage of Labour Force statistics UN Agencies - Domestic Violence Survey and dissemination of the results – UNDP Green Jobs Pilot Survey 2014 - ILO A co-joint report on Pilot survey on Green Jobs in Albania - ILO-INSTAT increased INSTAT capacity on green jobs concepts and definitions and to plan collecting data on green jobs Child Labour Survey 2010 – ILO TA & financial support on: survey methodology Final CLS report increased INSTAT capacity to collect quantitative information critical for planning actions against child labour in Albania and to carry out child labour surveys at regular intervals in the future and increase capacities on child labour data analysis

Household Surveys SDC and IPA 2009 National (PHC) - Increased analytical capacities of INSTAT staff in in-depth analysis of the data, publications on “Housing and dwelling conditions”, “Albanian regional labour market dynamics analyses”, “Commuting and transport”. World Bank, DIFID UK, UNDP, SDC, ISTAT of Italy – TA and financial support for LSMS (2002, 2005, 2008, 2012) on: implementation of the survey, sample design, questionnaire design, data cleaning and elaboration, analyses of the results; Establishing a system of household surveys Providing a measure of poverty and living condition in Albania Capacity building and on the job trainings to elaborate and analyse data CARDS 2003 & IPA MB 2008 – assistance for Annual Labour Force Survey, on: LFS sample design and questionnaire design. CARDS 2003 Improved Quality of Labour Market Statistics through regional pilot projects CARDS 2003  Transformation of annual LFS to continuous survey. IPA MB 2008

Household Surveys DIFID UK (Department for International Development), ISTAT of Italy, World Bank, SIDA, IPA Multi- beneficiary 2011 – TA & financial support on : Household Budget Survey (HBS 2006 -2007; 2008-2009; 2014) The implementation of the survey, sample design, questionnaire design, data cleaning and elaboration, analyses of the results. HBS harmonised with EU requirements. increased INSTAT capacity to conduct HBS at European level. Increased the statistical production in living condition. ILO, UNFPA, SIDA and IPA MB 2008 -2009 - Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2011 assistance on questionnaire design, and Data entry application on PDA – ILO PDA devices (Personal Digitalized Assistant) – UNFPA quarterly LFS questionnaire design; Labour Cost Survey, Labour Cost Index -IPA MB 2008-09 Review of sample design and estimation procedures for the Labour Force Survey - Sida

Information and Communication Technology IPA 2013 Support on piloting a data warehouse SIDA Implementation and upgrade the modern IT infrastructure Hardware and Software procurement Installation, configuration and continues support Increase capacity building for Network and Administration Staff Scanning System Implementation of scanning system ( 4 Scanners, READ Soft Licence) ; Scanning of the Questionnaires of PHC, CAH, Census of Enterprises Securing quality of working with the scanning process, monitoring, advising, assisting of best practice for scanning process Increase capacity building for Application Development Sector Staff Website Creation of a new Website Integration of the website with px-web

Information and Communication Technology SIDA Databases Server installation. Standardization of the procedures to check the properties of the instances and databases. Structuring of the database information for an easy, fast and effective recovery in cases of failures. Better routine in database management, back up routine, user’s right permissions and administration of failure situations. Business Register Datamodel and Interface - IT application that simplifies and optimizes updating procedure of SBR and fulfilled requests coming from other sectors. Metadata - MetaPlus and referential Metadata for statistical products in INSTAT. Survey Methodology Assistance on Sampling survey procedures and analyzing in line with EU requirements. Sampling design improvements on economic and social surveys. Development of SAS programs for estimation and weighting procedures. Data analysis and outlier detection Increase capacity building for Survey Methodology Staff

Information and Communication Technology IPA 2009 – assistance on PHC 2011 Improve ICT infrastructure for PHC 2011 TA on data validation, data cleaning and editing and quality reporting Establishment of an interactive web geo-statistical application http://instatgis.gov.al/ UNFPA Proper infrastructure in place for maintaining the solid geo data-base for all the survey to be conducted in the future; Web GIS application in place GIS and Cartography, field work, training and capacity building, etc. Capacity building of the cartography staff SDC / DESSA GIS and Cartography, capacity building, etc. MB IPA 2011 Quality Report for SBR is prepared with initiative of sector and recommendation of expert. QR is prepared following criteria and aspects of quality relating to official statistics. Capacity building

Number of the pilot project in the framework of IPA Multi-beneficiary 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 per statistical domain

Share of the capacity building activities under IPA MB 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012

Some issues related to support/assistance in the field of statistics Establishment of a sound statistical system and developing reliable/comparable statistics is a continuing process and results cannot be achieved immediately through a project or programme. It takes the necessary time - resources – proper legal and institutional framework – efforts – cooperation – coordination Measuring impact of combined assistances is difficult The combined delivery of the assistances between direct management from the NSI and direct managing from the donor it is considered as an efficient way of achieving results and share in the same time the administrative and technical burden put on the staff of the NSI along with their every day working. The European Union is the major donor in statistics, followed by Sweden (Sida), Switzerland (SDC), UN, IMF, WB, etc The most difficult impact to be measured is the impact of the foreign assistance in the capacity building and the impact of this process in the quality of the everyday work. In order to ensure the transfer of knowledge within the institution, INSTAT has developed information share practices. Everyone who participating in a statistical activity (meeting, WG, training, etc), put on share the related information/documentation for all relevant units. The personnel coming from the internships provide a presentation on the training topic covered for all the interested departments. This process is done based on a certain calendar and managed by the international relations department. The impact of the capacity building activities on the performance of the staff/institution is difficult to be measured

INSTAT is very grateful for each and every penny invested in statistics! THANK YOU!