Assessing the capacity of national statistical systems: A user’s guide

The NSS Assessment Guide identifies four different tool typologies to assist in the preparation of national statistical plans or strategies; aid development partner’s capacity building investment efforts; monitor statistical performance across countries; and assess quality and/or compliance to certain statistical codes of practice. The guide is divided into two parts:

• Part 1 introduces the topic and compares 15 of the most common assessment tools (Section 2), provides guidance to potential users in their choice of the most appropriate tool (Section 3), and explains how to interpret and use them (Section 4);
• Part 2, on the other hand, provides an in-depth description of each of the tools, as well as resources for further guidance.

National Statistical Systems (NSS) will need to assess their ability to respond to new national development priorities arising from changing regional and international development priorities and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As part of this new context and anticipated up-scaling of capacity development in statistics, this Guide documents various NSS assessment tools and has been prepared by PARIS21 for developing countries to use in identifying and selecting an appropriate assessment framework that fits their particular needs and requirements.