Government Statistician attends SPC Regional conference

Government Statistician attends SPC Regional conference

The Government Statistician Douglas Kimi is currently in Nadi, Fiji, attending a Regional Conference on HIES Methods and Poverty Analysis Methods.

He was accompanied by two senior NSO staff, Price Principal Statistician Mrs Anna Luvu and Chief Statistician (NSDS Project) Ms Anna Pitaboe.

Ten Pacific countries, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Rep. of Marshal Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are participating in the conference.

The Conference ran from 28^th to 31^st March 2023 for the HIES Methods and from 3^rd to 6^th April 2023 for the Poverty Analysis Methods.

The Conference is designed to provide Government Statisticians, HIES Methodologists and Poverty Analysts with recommendations on methods and tools for a successful planning and implementation of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) in the Region, and on theoretical and practical methods for undertaking poverty analyses.

It will also give countries the opportunity to share their best practice in terms of HIES implementation, to perform a gap analysis of their capacity and resources, and to benefit from the participation of international experts of poverty analysis.

Improved data collection method of HIES data application will be applied, where a two-week diary will be replaced by 1 week recall method of collection by use of CAPI using Survey Solution data collection application and R application.

This has been recommended by the Pacific Methods Board for the Pacific Islands countries to harmonised and standardised collection and reporting as well.

It is fortunate that NSO officers have been trained in the Survey solution and R Studio application and should be familiar with the application when HIES project begins in 2024