Page 354 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS277 Matthew Shearing
major opportunity? While public-public sector cooperation will inevitably
remain important in managing and delivering improvements in statistical
capacity, there is significant evidence that the private sector can be further
leveraged to increase statistical capacity, increase the funding available for it,
lower costs, and improve impact. There is an urgent case therefore that action
should be taken to explore the best ways of utilising this potential.

2. Methodology
This paper draws on lessons from Asia in published material, discussions
with development actors in the public (NSOs and international organisations)
and private sectors. It includes reflection on the author’s personal experiences
and discussions with a wide range of other independent consultants with in-
depth experience in statistical capacity-building in Asia, with a range of private
sector companies, and working in and with NSOs and international statistical
4
organisations . The conclusions and results are provisional to stimulate to
debate at the ISI World Statistics Congress in 2019 and to promote the
unearthing of wider evidence to inform the development of effective models
of PPPs.

3. Results
3.1 The traditional role of PPPs in developing official statistics
Typically, the private sector has worked with the public sector on a range
of projects from institutional reforms to support for innovation and the use of
new data sources and so on. Donors/ beneficiaries may hire either a company
or an individual from the private sector to deliver these services. These services
are often delivered through a combination of different types of actors across
the public and private sectors. In many cases, a private sector company will be
selected to manage overall delivery by a consortium of public and private
sector actors. In other cases, donor organisations, often due to prohibitive
bureaucracy in contracting services via the market-place, will sub-contract
individuals and directly manage or carry-out project implementation
themselves. This is often the case in the Asian Development Bank and United
Nations. In some cases, private sector companies are employed directly by
governments. This may become an increasingly important model in terms of
filling urgent skills gaps, such as in data science, particularly given the private
sector’s natural strength as innovators and ability to rapidly mobilise skills in
response to emerging needs.

4 The author in particular wishes to thank Misha Belkindas, Mike Hughes, Jean-Michel Durr,
and Richard Roberts
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