Abstract

This presentation will showcase work done under the umbrella of the Collaborative on Administrative Data and the Women Count project in Southern and Eastern Africa on the development of a toolkit for the assessment of administrative data quality.

Administrative data collected by governments and service providers in the course of their day-today business is an increasingly important source for the production of official statistics to fill the gaps in the data available to policy and decision makers to protect vulnerable groups, monitor progress and implement the 2030 Agenda and other government priority areas. How to proceed to get access to these administrative data sources and how to assess the quality of these data for statistics production are challenges that many countries are facing and seek guidance and tools on.

To address this need UN Women and the Collaborative on Administrative Data have together initiated the development of a practically oriented quality assessment toolkit. The aim of the work is to support countries in their efforts to operationalise quality assessments of administrative data sources. As the need for tools and guidance has proven higher among low resource countries that are just initiating their efforts to make better use of administrative data sources, the tool development has primarily focused on those needs. However, experiences from countries further advanced in the use of administrative data for statistics have also been brought together through review of best practice, bilateral meetings and feedback on the tool development.

The beta version of the tool has since been piloted in a small number of countries. Some of the countries are already working with administrative data for statistical production, others are only starting to venture into this area. The toolkit has been adjusted after each country engagement, reflecting the in-country learnings.

During the session, the speaker will present the toolkit and its development process as well as some of the experiences gained during in country testing as well as the planned way forward.