Countries Stress the Need to Have Sustainable Access to Data Held by the Private Sector for Official Statistical Purposes

Representatives of National Statistical Offices stressed the need to have sustainable access to data held by the private sector for the production of official statistics, during the Twelfth Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which is taking place through Thursday, September 28 at the United Nations regional organization’s main headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

The Statement on the use of data held by the private sector for the purposes of official statistics warns about the increased challenges associated with the collection of primary data from persons, households, businesses and institutions, and emphasizes the potential of private sector data in the more timely and efficient production of official statistics.

In that regard, it urges the region’s countries to support national statistical offices in their key coordinating role in access to data held by the private sector for official statistical purposes, taking into consideration the different levels of progress of the respective national statistical systems.

Furthermore, it encourages international organizations dealing with access to data held by the private sector to strategically coordinate their work so as to ensure a more efficient use of human and financial resources, and to support national statistical offices in their efforts to cooperate with the private sector.

The Statement calls for collaborating effectively with private sector data providers to ensure the mutual benefits of such collaboration, while maintaining the security and confidentiality of data, and suggests exploring the legislative tools for sustainable access to data held by the private sector for the purposes of official statistics, while maintaining confidentiality throughout the process.

In addition, it urges for the development, adoption and implementation of standards and protocols and the provision of infrastructure to facilitate access to data held by the private sector, and it exhorts countries to ensure strict adherence to legal provisions in accessing data held by the private sector for the production of official statistics and to use such data under strict observance of statistical codes and good practices.

In this Statement, the countries gathered at the 12th meeting of the SCA call for “the acquisition of data to be based on the principle of necessity, always with a specific purpose and in the best interest of citizens.”