ISI - International Statistical Institute
Newsletter Volume 24, No. 3 (72) 2000

The ISI and its Sections have developed quite a few activities since our last Newsletter appeared. The IASC has realised a successful Compstat 2000 meeting in Utrecht, with an attendance of over 300 participants in the modern "Educatorium" (designed by the well known Dutch architect Remco Koolhaas) at the Utrecht University Campus in the Netherlands (see the IASC portion of this Newsletter for further details). The IASE has had a successful round table meeting in Tokyo, Japan, in which 45 speakers, discussants and observers participated, representing developing and developed countries (turn to the IASE portion for a detailed overview). The IAOS organized its largest meeting ever in Montreux, Switzerland, with more than 700 participants from 123 different countries.

As some questions were raised when the title of this IAOS meeting was first announced (Statistics, Development and Human rights), I would like to devote some more attention to it. The questions initially raised were; Is this really a meeting on statistics? How many statisticians will attend? Will it not turn into a political meeting? What will the role of the media be, likely as they are to distort the statistical content and conclusions of such a meeting? In retrospect, all these fears were unfounded. There were indeed a large number of non-statisticians, but without exception, they were users or potential users of statistics who were keen to find out what statistics could contribute in the fields of human development and human rights. The media was present in greater numbers than ever before at a statistical meeting, which is a positive development for our discipline, which is so often ignored by the press, and the quality of reporting was not distorted by political considerations. I summarise (in my translation) an article covering the meeting as it appeared in a most authoritative Swiss quality newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of September 9, 2000:

Statisticians from 123 countries, assembled for a week in Montreux, have pledged to increasingly apply their expertise to help support social and economic developments and human rights. Also, National Statistical Offices in developing countries will be provided with more help in their work. To improve co-operation with organisations for developing country aid and for Human Rights, the participants agreed on a work program which was presented by the Director General of the Swiss Nationals Statistical Office, Carlo Malaguerra. The program includes improvement of interdisciplinary co-operation, the development of new indicators to measure social and economical development, and to measure human rights. It stressed the need for education and training in statistics of those working for Non-Governmental Organisation to make optimal use of available statistics. Equally important is the need to support official statisticians in developing countries to achieve greater independence from their governments, both in the kinds of statistics they produce, and their methodology for producing them. Statistics has a role to play in the process of democratisation of developing and transition countries. Statistics provide important tools, which can compel governments and their institutions to become accountable for what they do. Through statistics, society obtains the possibility to exercise control over what its government does, provided statisticians can work independently. Developing countries need to transfer their know-how as much as material support in order to achieve this objective. Indicators are being developed to measure progress in human development and human rights, which allow comparisons between countries from the same region to be made. The indicators in the yearly reports from UNDP were recognised as a successful instrument, and as the first substantial attempt at quantifying social changes in a manner which allows comparison between countries".

So far the press comment. One of the many topics discussed at the meeting was the need for equal opportunities for men and women. Under the motto "Improve the world, begin at home" the Chair of the ISI-Committee for Women, Beverley Carlson, presented an analysis of women statisticians' participation in ISI and its Sections. Rather surprisingly, it turned out that countries with a good reputation for equal opportunities for men and women, such as the Scandinavian countries, had a much lower female membership in the ISI than, for instance, the Mediterranean countries. Also, the ISI-Sections had a higher female participation than ISI itself, which may have to do with the ISI-election procedures. A full report on this topic will appear in the next issue of the International Statistical Review.

Returning to the activities of the ISI Permanent Office, we are in the process of preparing an electronic ISI membership list, which can be consulted on the Web. If you do not want your co-ordinates, including your E-mail and postal address to be included on this list together with your name, please send a note to that effect to the Permanent Office.

In co-operation with Eurostat, we are now planning to expand our multi-lingual statistical Glossary containing more than 3,000 statistical terms, to include a Russian version. We will keep you updated about this new development. The Glossary can be consulted via the website or directly at the source Eurostat website:

http://www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat/research/isi/

We are also pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached with Oxford University Press for the publication of a new edition of the ISI Dictionary of Statistical Terms, which is being prepared by the Editor Yadolah Dodge with the support of an excellent editorial board. Its intended publication date is in 2002, and an electronic version next to hard copy is being considered (additional details can be found on the Publications Pocket-page).

Back to Home Page

Back to Newsletter