1. INSTAT National Institute of Statistics of Albania

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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 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)

7. 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 ”, “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

8. 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 – WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA
Management Unit, Preparatory work, consultations on the PHC UNDP
Communication and publicity campaign of the PHC 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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. 

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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.

16. 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 , 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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 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

20. 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

21. 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 ; ; 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 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
Review of sample design and estimation procedures for the Labour Force Survey - Sida

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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
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

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

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

27. 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

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