Page 360 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS277 Matthew Shearing
investments by the donor (such as their spending on the wider development
of a country in question). This lack of public sector willingness goes beyond
the national level; international developments in statistics seem too exclusive
of the private sector in the coordination of the response to capacity
development needs. Trust building activities and the exchange of information
between the sectors has the potential to release the confidence required by
the private sector to invest in financeraising activities.
Furthermore, many private sector technical service providers in official
statistics are sizeable enough to provide pre-financing of projects, which
represents a temporary investment allowing for capacity developments to take
place in a timely fashion.

Figure 3: Example of the potential of PPPs to raise funds for statistical
development
In 2017, GOPA Statistics, a private sector technical service provider,

successfully lobbied the Government of Luxembourg to invest in capacity
development work in Laos. This involved a partnership between the
Luxembourg NSO (STATEC) and GOPA in both the lobbying and delivery
of the project which has allowed for the continuation of important
structural statistical
reforms in Laos.

Financial transparency
The need for more transparency in the financing of development - improving
the quantity and quality of financing data - is a widely recognised
5
requirement . Where capacity development is market-driven this is a
fundamental benefit given the transparency required in budgeting and
expenditure. This contrasts with the hidden costs of public sector activities,
such as additional staffing costs (eg business class flights) which then limits
the budgets available to NSOs to provide on-the-ground support to other
NSOs. Moreover, the overall transparency of the private sector’s motivations
contrasts sharply with the more political elements of the international
interaction between public sector bodies. These motivations may be ‘politically
efficient’ but they are rarely transparent and economically efficient, thus
jeopardising the efficient distribution of available funds for capacity
development.

3.4 Wider barriers to effective PPPs
The public sector in general seems to remain overly nervous about
working with the private sector. Recent efforts by the public sector to reach
out to the private sector to solve the Agenda 2030 challenge have been largely

5 For example: http://www.oecd.org/dac/development-co-operation-report-20747721.htm
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