Page 59 - Revista del Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo del INEI - Economía, Sociedad y Estadística N° 9

CHANGES IN OPERATIONAL STATISTICAL PROCESSES working arrangements have been implemented to a
lesser degree. Remote working arrangements have
Remote work been prioritized for employees who live further away
from the NSO facility and pregnant employees. For staff
Due to mandatory social distancing measures in many members who must work on-site, there are protocols
countries around the world, the general population has that include compulsory face mask wearing, respiratory
been instructed to remain home, in some countries. symptom checks, body temperature checks twice a
Consequently, NSO’s have been forced to implement day and rotating work shifts, among other measures.
remote work or telecommuting measures for their staff,
who must ensure the continuity most of the NSOs’
operations.
Data gathering
This sudden and important transition from working
at the NSOs’ facilities to remote work has generated Traditional data gathering methods have been affected
problems in operational activities, more so in NSO’s during the COVID-19 crisis. Traditional data gathering
developing countries or low-income countries, whose methods often implies face to face interviews, which
staff are not always properly equipped for this type are no longer possible, due to infection risks. Some
of work (lack of computers, laptops, etc.). Such is the NSO’s have been forced to postpone or cancel surveys,
case of the NSO in the Maldives, which has limited IT thus, NSO’s have explored other non-traditional data
resources (PARIS21, 2020). In these countries, there gathering methods to ensure the continuity of official
have been delays in staff communication, i.e., the NSO statistics dissemination.
staff were not properly informed about changes in the
working conditions in a timely fashion (e.g. absence of First, the use of administrative data is without a doubt
constant e-mail remittances). This created confusion an important alternative source of information to
and uncertainty among staff members. impute or estimate missing data. Administrative data are
databases that are administered by other government
On another note, there are NSO’s with greater resources bodies different from the official statistical producing
and better IT infrastructures. The Colombian NSO, DANE agency. In some countries, administrative data is already
(Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística used to produce official statistics, and it is a matter of
de Colombia), used a VPN to ensure connectivity to adapting existing methodologies to the COVID-19 crisis.
its remote working staff, and free licensed anti-virus Meanwhile, in other countries, there are no existing
software was distributed (DANE, 2020). As a result, staff mechanisms to use administrative sources, or these
members were able to access DANE’s resources from administrative sources are not robust and complete
home in a secure manner. Similarly, South Korea’s NSO enough to be properly used.
set a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and a governmental
VPN in order to have a safe remote working environment
(KOSTAT, 2020). Unlike other NSO’s, however, remote

FIGURE 2: TYPES OF DATA SOURCES AND EXAMPLES

Traditional sources Administrative sources Non-traditional sources

• Census • Tax records • Geolocalation data
• Survey • Civil records • Commercial data
• Electoral records • Social media data
• Vehicle registration data • Financial data

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