NSCB - Statistically Speaking... Development of the Subnational Statistical System: The Region I Experience

Development of the Subnational Statistical System:
The Region I Experience ²

Christmas is just around the corner and so is vacation time. Have you decided where to spend your vacation? If not, I encourage you to visit Region 1!

Located in the northern part of the Philippines, Region I, also known as Ilocos Region, is a favorite destination of foreign and domestic tourists as it offers products and services that will satisfy both body and soul.

In 2007, 351,176 tourists visited the region - 306,803 Philippine residents and 44,373 foreigners. Most of the foreign visitors came from Taiwan (30.6%) followed by China (12.7 %) and U.S.A. (11.8%)³.

Among the famous tourist destinations of the region are the Manaoag Church in Manaoag, Pangasinan, Hundred Islands in Alaminos City, Pangasinan, Botanical Garden City in San Fernando City, La Union, clean and sandy/white beaches in La Union and Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, and century-old architectural houses in Vigan, Ilocos Sur. Other visitors enjoy surfing in San Juan, La Union or playing casino in Laoag City’s Fort Ilocandia and San Fernando City’s Thunderbird Resort.

quote Region 1 is not only known for its natural wonders and beauty. It is also considered as one of the most statistically-developed regions of the country today! Our Ilocano and Pangasinense kababayans are now enjoying the availability of statistics with more sub-classification and lower-level disaggregation, and most of which are in time series as a result of improved data generation in the region. Among them are: employment generated in leading industries by sex of employee and province, investments generated by sex of investor and province; proportion of elected women in local elections by type of position and province, incidence/death rate associated with rabies, malaria, dengue, leprosy and cholera by province/city, number of women detained in jails by crime charged, number of children in conflict with the law detained in jails by length of detention, perpetrators of violence against women and children by relationship to victim, and proportion of local government unit budget/expenditure for social services by province/city. All of these data are available in the National Statistical Information Center (NSIC) Region I Branch being administered by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Regional Division (RD) 1.

Ilocos Region has been regarded, not only by our kababayans, but also by our kapitbahays in the other regions, as a leader in statistical development. Before I discuss why, let us journey back in time to have a better understanding of the region’s statistical system.

The year 1988 could be considered as the turning point in the Ilocos Region’s statistical system with the implementation of the Regional Statistical System Development Project (RSSDP) in the region, as one of the two pilot regions of the project, by the NSCB, with funding assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Prior to 1988, statistical development activities were part of the functions of the NEDA Regional Office 1 (NRO 1) but these were not regularly implemented given the development planning concerns of the agency. The birth of the RSSDP in 1988 paved the way for the creation of a full-time unit with five staff complement (three technical staff and two administrative staff). Project activities focused on statistical planning and coordination, data production and human resource development. The RSSDP Project Staff were housed at the NRO I with the NRO I Regional Director as the RSSDP’s Project Manager and some NRO I technical and administrative staff as part-time Project Coordinators from 1988-1990. In 1991, the management of the Project was transferred from the NRO 1 to the NSO Regional Office 1 following the set-up adopted in the other RSSDP pilot region – Eastern Visayas. The RSSDP ended in 1991 but the good news is that the Project activities were institutionalized with the creation of the NSCB Regional Unit from the RSSDP Project Staff.

To serve as the highest policy-making and coordinating body on statistical matters in the region, the Regional Statistical Coordination and Development Committee (RSCDC) was created in 1988 through the RSSDP. The RSSDP Project Staff served as the RSCDC’s technical secretariat. The RSCDC later disbanded with the creation of the Regional Statistical Coordination Committee (RSCC) in 1992 through NSCB Resolution No. 1, series of 1992. The RSCC has been existing since then with the NSCB Regional Unit 1 (later became NSCB RD 1) as its technical secretariat.

RSCC Region 1 is chaired by the NRO 1 Regional Director and co-chaired by the NSO I Regional Director. Its members are: the heads of the following regional government offices: Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), Commission on Population (POPCOM), all the Provincial and City Planning and Development Coordinators (PPDOs/CPDOs) of the local government units, and heads of the Philippine Statistical Association (PSA) Region I Chapter, Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) Region 1 and La Union Bankers’ Associations. The RSCC conducts quarterly regular meetings and special meetings as needed through the sponsorship of the member-agencies, who take turns in hosting the meetings of the committee.

quote Among the activities initiated in Region 1 include the First Regional Statistics Appreciation Week and Statistics Quiz in 1989, which were conducted through the RSSDP. These could be considered as the forerunners of the National Statistics Month (NSM) and Philippine Statistics Quiz (PSQ), respectively. The region has perhaps perfected the NSM celebration as it has been awarded the Best NSM Region for four years now – in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007!

Innovative activities are born every year as the region celebrates the NSM. One would be amazed on the creativity and industriousness of our kababayans, especially in the different provinces of the region. In October 2008, the out-of-school youths in Pangasinan brought Statman, the NSM official mascot, to the sky through the Kite Making and Kite Flying Contest sponsored by the Alaminos Credit Cooperative. The activity actually won as the region’s 2008 Best NSM Activity!

The Search for Best NSM Activity is one of the two contests being conducted by the RSCC every NSM celebration in October as a way of incentive and award system to NSM implementors. The other contest is the Search for Best NSM Province, patterned after the national level contest. The Search for the Best NSM Province has been a test of the provinces’ level of statistical appreciation (and of course that of their local chief executives!) as the implementation of NSM activities depends a lot on funds approved by the local leaders. It seems that our subregional NSM coordinators have done their homework well as three of the four provinces of the region have won the contest since it was started in 2003. This year, Pangasinan won as Best NSM Province because of the various activities it implemented with the private sector as a visible partner in the celebration.

Seeing the contest as a very good activity to instill statistical awareness among students and educators, the RSCC institutionalized the Statistics Quiz with the PSA Region I Chapter as the main implementor. Over the years, it has attracted more academic institutions with the conduct of lower level elimination by the provinces (school, district and/or provincial level), through the support of subregional level offices. At the regional level, the Provincial Champion teams compete for the regional title.

Another first in the region is the Regional Knowledge Center for Women and Children (RKCWC) which was established through the initiative of NRO I with funding assistance from the UNICEF. Recognizing the NSCB RD 1 as the regional central data bank and the administrator of the NSIC branch in the region, the NRO I decided to base it in the office of the NSCB RD as part of NSIC, instead of establishing it in their office. The RKCWC includes a database and library containing statistical data that are useful for planning, advocacy and research activities. The Gender and Development (GAD) Indicator System of the region serves as the guide of the data producers in their generation and dissemination of statistics on women and men.

This year, the region, through the NSCB RD 1, prepared the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) DevInfo database, through the MDG Project of Region 1, in partnership with NRO I and with funding assistance from the UNDP, in support to MDG localization. The database contains regional, provincial and city level MDG indicators and municipal level MDG indicators for La Union, the Project’s pilot province. The other outputs of the project are the Manual on Standard Concepts and Definitions of MDG Indicators, Compendium of MDG Indicators for Region 1, and the conduct of a training on DevInfo for MDG data sources and local government units in the region. To ensure the maximum dissemination, and thus utilization of the project outputs, these were presented in a users’ forum in October 2008 with line agencies, academic institutions and local government units as participants.

The region also embarked into the following pilot activities in response to the demand for data with lower level disaggregation: generation of data from business licensing system in San Fernando City, La Union and Ilocos Norte, generation of unduplicated data on violence against women and children, and generation of health statistics by place of origin of clients in La Union to address the issue on high health statistics in cities.

What makes Region 1 always on the go? Is it a case of a region being challenged always to live up to its name as number one region? Is there a secret formula behind all the region’s achievements? I happen to have been with Region 1’s statistical system for 20 years now being an original RSSDP Project Staff and I can say that the main factor behind the region’s statistical development are the people in the region themselves and let me explain why.

quote RSCC meetings and other statistical fora in the region bring out bright ideas among the Ilocanos and Pangasinenses reflecting the advanced statistical literacy of the people in the region. This could be attributed to the various statistical activities being conducted in the region by the RSCC, NSCB, NSO, BAS and other offices catering to the different sectors of the society. As far as NSCB is concerned, it has been its strategy to distribute the beneficiaries of its activities to the different provinces of the region to ensure balanced statistical development at the subregional level. Putting the bright ideas into action, however, is equally important and more often than not, the action arrow is directed to the NSCB RD 1 as the RSCC’s secretariat and one of the major statistical agencies in the region. It has always been a challenge to the NSCB RD 1 on how to satisfy the region’s desires given its limited manpower and financial resources.

Thanks to the support of the RSCC Chair, NEDA Regional Director Leonardo N. Quitos, Jr., the life of NSCB RD 1 had been easier. Believing in the important role of statistics in the different stages of the development planning process, the support of Dir. Quitos to statistical activities in the region is unparalleled. New ideas usually come from him and when these are put into action, you are assured of his all-out support, including financial and manpower support from the NEDA and/or the Regional Development Council. The region is also fortunate to have a very supportive RSCC Co-Chair, National Statistics Office (NSO) Regional Director Alfredo D. Batoy, who is always around to assist the RSCC Chair in overseeing the affairs of the Committee. With the heads of the NEDA and NSO Regional Offices as NSCB RD I’s tatays in the region, life would indeed be easier. The harmonious relationship of the NSCB RD 1 with the staff of the NEDA and NSO Regional Office cannot also be discounted and this could be traced to their being magkapamilya, and magkasambahay for a number of years during the RSSDP years.

With the high state of statistical literacy in the region, coordination with the government offices has been easy for the NSCB RD 1. A phone call to our very industrious, patient and cooperative manongs, manangs and adings for data/information needs, request for assistance, etc. would make balls rolling. In return, they are always the beneficiaries of the NSCB’s products and services such as participants to seminars and conferences, and recipients of complimentary copies of publications. And of course, when they also make a request, you better give them too even in the form of attendance to their meetings and activities only.

Servicing a very aggressive region as far as statistical development is concerned has been a very challenging job to the NSCB RD 1. Deciding which to implement and not to implement has been very difficult considering manpower constraints. Responding to requests for technical assistance or participation in inter-agency activities, amidst the production of its own products and services, has been a test of time and stress management for the staff. With the increasing statistical awareness of the different stakeholders in the region, such requests will definitely multiply. This will continue to challenge the NSCB RD 1 as the statistical coordinator in the region.

quote While Region 1’s statistical system could be considered as one of the highly developed ones already, its journey to the ladder of statistical development is a continuous one as people who appreciate the importance of statistics continue to demand more. With the increasing statistical literacy of the region, the demand for more specialized data and data with lower level disaggregation is expected to simultaneously increase. With the limited resources for statistical activities of the national government, the region will have to find strategies on how the demand could be addressed. The region has embarked on pilot activities to generate lower level data through the processing of administrative-based forms in the past. However, some of these activities were not institutionalized or not quote replicated in other areas due to the absence of adequate funds and manpower for statistical activities. It is therefore a continuing challenge, particularly to the RSCC, on how to further steer the region to have more investments in statistics – to have more funds for statistical activities, to attract more statisticians and retain the trained ones. We should be optimistic though that our national and local lawmakers will soon realize the importance of the subnational statistical system for it to be given the support it truly deserves.

So have you decided to visit Region 1? You may wish to visit too the region’s statistical offices! The NSCB RD I would be more than willing to show you the region’s statistical products and services. But when you visit Region 1, be sure to reserve extra money for pasalubongs. Visitors to the region will feel bad if they could not bring home tupig, puto, isdang espada, kalamay, bibingka, longganisang Vigan, bagnet, bagoong, kornik, sukang Iloko, bawang or basi! Happy eating but watch out for your calorie intake!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Reactions and views are welcome thru email to the author at ibubungen@yahoo.com

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¹Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) and Chairman of the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC). He holds a Ph. D. in Statistics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA and has taught mathematics and statistics at the University of the Philippines. He is also a past president of the Philippine Statistical Association.

² This article was written by Dr. Irenea B. Ubungen (ibubungen@yahoo.com).
Dr. Ubungen is Head of the NSCB Regional Division 1 and has a Ph.D. in Development Administration from the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in La Union. The author acknowledges Dr. Romulo A. Virola and Mr. Candido J. Astrologo, Jr. for their comments and inputs. The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSCB.

³ Source: Department of Tourism Regional Office 1.

Posted 08 December 2008.