Statistical tools
Eurostat has developed a set of strategic, programming, and operational tools, which serve a broad range of stakeholders involved in development cooperation. These tools are all provided free of charge.
Their objective is to support international development partners at regional and national level in establishing sustainable statistical systems and processes. They aim at strengthening the capacity to produce quality statistics in line with international standards and user needs.
For further information or resources regarding the tools, please contact Eurostat's statistical cooperation team by email.
Strategic tools
The Snapshot provides partner countries with a concise assessment of the maturity of their statistical systems and the quality of key indicators. It exists in the following language versions:
It is aimed at users from EU delegations, statistical authorities in partner countries, statistical centres in regional organisations.
Description
The tool translates a complex statistical quality framework into a clear and easy to understand assessment of the status and the development of key aspects of a statistical system. It can be used to analyse the whole national statistical system or just key sectors.
The tool assesses quality dimensions in statistics such as:
- the institutional environment of the national statistical system
- the statistical processes
- the statistical outputs.
The results are summarised in graphs that directly highlight these strengths and weakness with respect to specific quality dimensions.
Please also consult the manual on the Snapshot tool which provides clear and comprehensive guidance to help understanding the assessment process and the process of filling out the tool.
Objective
The overall aim is to support sustainable improvements in national and sector statistics in partner countries, by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of their statistical system.
Origins and revisions
The Snapshot tool was originally based on the European Statistical System Quality Assurance Framework and adjusted to the context in other parts of the world.
During the first half of 2023, Eurostat worked on a new version to improves the coverage of other international frameworks, in particular the United Nations (UN) Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the UN National Quality Assurance Framework. The revision also benefited from the experience gathered by applying it in Africa and Latin America. In addition, the new version takes into account diversity, including gender issues.
Programming tools
The guide to statistics in European Commission development cooperation helps to better understand the statistical processes, organisation, and functioning of a national statistical system, and different statistical fields.
It also helps to understand
- the instruments used by the European Commission to support statistical development
- ways of increasing the effectiveness and sustainability of a project to support statistics
- the role of statistics in the cycle of development projects/programmes of the European Commission.
The guide was mainly designed to support those working in EU delegations. However, it may also be useful for any professional working in the area of statistics in development cooperation.
Operational tools
Eretes is used for the compilation of national accounts in line with the System of National Accounts (SNA) 2008. It has been developed jointly with the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE). It is used in around 30 countries all over the world, mainly in Africa and in Latin America.
It is aimed at users from statistical authorities in partner countries and regional organisations.
Essential SNA: building the basics is a handbook for the implementation and the improvement of a country's SNA, which is fully compliant with the 2008 SNA rules and recommendations.
It is used to support the successful implementation of the SNA 2008 in the least developed countries, micro-states, and other countries that have not implemented it yet.
The main target of the handbook are countries that have not yet compiled the overall comprehensive estimates of the SNA. However, other countries can also find it useful for the training and re-training of their staff, in particular of new employees.
Eurotrace is a generic and open system for the processing and dissemination of international trade in goods statistics at national and regional level.
Eurotrace allows:
- to import and manage the data necessary to the compilation of the trade in goods statistics, in particular customs data
- to process these data, in particular by carrying out quality controls
- to compile the data to be disseminated to users, according to different levels of aggregation and different classifications
- to run more sophisticated calculations, including the production of indices.
It was developed in the context of long-standing statistical cooperation programmes with non-EU countries. It is used since the 1990s and is running in about 100 countries. It is aimed at users from statistical authorities in partner countries and regional organisations.
Statistical data and metadata exchange (SDMX) is an initiative that sets standards to facilitate the exchange of statistical data and metadata using modern information technology.
It is aimed at users from statistical authorities in partner countries and regional organisations.
It is sponsored by the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank, Eurostat, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations, and the World Bank.
For further information, you can also consult the Eurostat SDMX infospace.