Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific Islands Project (PACSTAT)

IDA Project Grant Number: D544 [P169122]

Project summary

The Statistical Innovation and Capacity Building in the Pacific Islands (PACSTAT) project has an overall development objective to improve the quality of welfare data collection and accessibility to comparable welfare data in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs). To achieve this objective, the project includes the following three components: 

1. to support the administration of the Pacific Statistics Methods Board and the dissemination of its recommendations; 
2. to strengthen SPC’s Statistics for Development Division’s (SDD) ability to play a “statistical system leader” role and provide technical assistance on data collection methods; and 
3. to promote context-appropriate innovation in the region. 

Component 1: Pacific Statistics Methods Board

Supporting the running of the PSMB will significantly accelerate the identification and adoption of improved methods by National Statistics Offices (NSOs) in the PICs. The PSMB is seen to be a vital component in the new regional statistics governance framework recommended by the 2017 HOPS meeting. The PSMB is tasked with undertaking literature reviews and field experiments to test the viability of new statistical methods in the Pacific context, as well as making recommendations to NSOs based on the results. This approach has benefits to the region on several levels: 

1. It introduces a culture of academic rigor in the process of statistical innovations while remaining mindful of the local context and the need for local credibility: 
2. It promotes harmonisation in the Pacific region by replacing bilateral recommendations from development partners with a more streamlined process; and 
3. It shifts the burden of investment in experimentation from resource-constrained NSOs to a regional body with higher capacity, which also introduces economies of scale.

Component 2: Institutional Strengthening and Implementation Support 

The second component of activities will support SPC-SDD in its transition to a regional knowledge producer and a leader in the dissemination of data. To fulfil its mission of strengthening access to and use of development statistics in policy development, SPC-SDD would benefit from expanded analytical capacity, provided through the recruitment of the three long-term consultants. In addition, this component includes funding for existing SPC staff to support the technical and administrative implementation of the project as well as funding to strengthen SPC-SDD’s ability to provide remote training to NSOs.

Component 3: Alternative data collection methods 

The project will support experiments in alternative data collection methods. There are several innovations in data collection that could potentially reduce the costs and complexity of collecting socioeconomic data in PICs, particularly by addressing the vast geography and sparse population constraints to traditional data collection. SPC-SDD will work with NSOs in IDA-eligible beneficiary countries to trial alternative data collection methods, based on what is deemed appropriate and most impactful for the specific contexts.

Project documentation

Project web page and documentation can be found here. 

1. PACSTAT Project Operations Manual (Updated Aug 2023)
2. PACSTAT Financial Management Manual
3. PACSTAT Procurement Manual
4. PACSTAT Partnership Agreement
5. PACSTAT Grant Agreement
6. PACSTAT Stakeholder Engagement Plan
7. PACSTAT Labour Management Procedures
8. PACSTAT 2021 Annual Work Plan and Budget
9. PACSTAT 2022 Annual Work Plan and Budget

Procurement

1. PACSTAT General Procurement Notice
2. PACSTAT 18-month procurement plan

Requests for proposals

Requests for proposals for Research and Innovative Experiments. 
RFP and submission form April 2022

Research

Research materials and results of project-commissioned research.

SPC’s Climate Change and Natural Disasters Survey: Core Module

Advancing climate change monitoring in the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories through household surveys.

Experimentation

Research materials and results of project-implemented innovative experiments. 
(DOCUMENTS WILL BE ADDED DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION) 

Learning and knowledge, and Pacific Statistics Methods Board (PSMB) recommendation

Statistics, poverty and harmonisation related learning and knowledge products, and PSMB recommendation 
(DOCUMENTS WILL BE ADDED DURING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION)

Contact, complaints and comments

For further information, please contact Michael Sharp, Economic Statistics and Microdata Specialist ([email protected])

Please refer to SPC’s procurement page to access information for lodging of complaints and comments in relation to project procurement activities.