Bangkok (Thailand) Virtual, 16 June - The annual Asia-Pacific Statistics Week has been a consistent platform in recent years for data practitioners to share their experience, to find areas for collaboration and to identify areas where data gaps can be addressed.

This year's theme focused on “A decade of action for the 2030 Agenda: Statistics that leave no one and nowhere behind”, focusing on progress made towards the Collective Vision and Framework for Action. The goal is to empower national statistical systems to meet urgent and evolving statistical needs through five action areas:

A: Engaging users and investing in statistics

B: Assuring quality and instilling trust in statistics

C: Integrated statistics for integrated analysis

D: Modernizing statistical business processes

E: Having requisite skills set

The CoE contributed a paper and delivered a presentation on its contents contributing towards Action Area A: Engaging users and investing in statistics, titled Investing in Statistical Frameworks - Prioritization of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics.

The presentation from Ms. Kyungsoon Choi, Coordinator of the CoE, discussed regional challenges, particularly the data gaps, tools available to Member States, particularly the role of the CoE to support data collection, analysis and dissemination whilst highlighting the lack of regional prioritization of crime and criminal justice statistics. Such gaps are evidenced by the lack of data submitted to the United Nations Crimes Trends Survey and limited contributions towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

At the center of the CoE role, is ensuring that the Asia-Pacific overcomes these challenges by learning from other countries' experiences. Accordingly, Ms. Choi presented two national examples of reform in the areas of crime and criminal justice statistics which represented how the crime statistics system operated before the reform, why the reform was undertaken and the remaining challenges. Yet the examples, while sharing similarities, also approached prioritization from significantly different approaches: the Kazakhstan approach was top-down; while the Philippines approach was bottom-up. In addition to prioritization and structural changes, both states are identifying ways to improve statistical standards including implementing the International Classification of Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) to standardize crime definitions at national and global levels.

The initiatives of these two countries to fight crime with effective data show some best practices in how to undertake reform and ensure that policies reflect crime realities.

Further information on the CoE can be found @CoE_UNODC and Facebook @UNODC.KOSTAT.CoE