EU offers continuous technical assistance to support the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova
During September-October 2021, the project “Technical Assistance to Support the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of the Republic of Moldova” continued the implementation of the planned activities, carrying out several workshops, trainings and events.
In September, 49 NBS employees successfully completed an English language course. Trained by qualified teachers during a nine month period, NBS employees benefited from a free English language course, held online twice a week. Advanced knowledge of English will allow NBS staff to access methodological documents of EU and international standards, and the acquis communautaire related to official statistics.
In October, the NBS started to test new and modern methods of data collection for household surveys. From 4 to 8 October, and again on 21 and 22 October, the project supported the organisation of training activities for field enumerators and supervisors aimed at testing and practicing a Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) application developed jointly by project experts and NBS IT staff.
For the first time, Moldovan statistical data for the Labour Force Survey (LFS) is being collected digitally, using tablets syncronised with a central server. CAPI is a modern alternative for the traditional paper-based statistical data collection, where interviewers use handheld electronic devices to collect data from respondents.
Starting from the second half of October, the trained field operators have started to work in the field in several localities across the country.
On 22 October, on the occasion of the World Statistics Day, celebrated on 20 October, the National Bureau of Statistics organised an event dedicated to the use of spatial data and geospatial tools for the production and dissemination of official statistics. The event was attended by representatives of the Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre, the Public Services Agency, the Ministry of Finance and academia, as well as international donors, project experts and development partners. During the event, it was reported on the current implementation of the Global Statistical Geospatial Framework and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure in the Republic of Moldova and the role of NBS and the Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre within it. The discussions revealed the importance of integrating the official statistics with other data systems, the interoperability of all partners involved and the establishment of sustainable partnerships. In this context, the NBS confirmed its commitment to further develop the geospatial statistical infrastructure to align with other European countries.
Project activities continued with an online workshop, held during 25-26 October, organised on the implementation of the methodology of the European System of Integrated Statistics on Social Protection (ESSPROS) in the Republic of Moldova. During the workshop, project experts familiarised the participants with the structure of the EU methodology and the main definitions used by EU countries and stressed the importance of aligning the Moldovan social protection system to EU standards. The workshop also aimed at presenting and validating the social protection schemes identified by the NBS with the support of EU assistance, by organising individual meetings with the national partner institutions responsible for producing data on social protection, mainly concerning the financial flows of expenditure and income on the Moldovan population social protection.
Moreover, project experts assisted the NBS in a number of other statistical fields, such as structural business surveys and international trade statistics, improvement of national legislation related to official statistics, education statistics, user satisfaction surveys, metadata systems for statistics.
Finally, the NBS staff and project experts further progressed on the implementation of a new website of the Institution, and on the development of a new branding more in line with the latest modern trends of European national statistical institutes.