Improved data governance leads to better economic outcomes for Philippine citizens

Espey, Jessica (2018) Improved data governance leads to better economic outcomes for Philippine citizens UNSDSN

Record type: Monograph (Project Report)

Abstract

In 2013, the Philippines Government enacted legislation that merged four existing data-producing agencies into one comprehensive Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Despite the high transaction costs of the initial reform, it was believed that a single, centralized agency could improve the quality and timeliness of official statistics, as well as generate efficiencies in data collection. Five years since the legislation was enacted, the PSA has: improved the timeliness of national and regional accounts, supporting more accurate and timely financial activities (including a new cost-saving tax reform program); opened up national statistical data, including microdata, in alignment with the national government’s commitment to transparency; innovated the way it conducts household surveys and censuses to enable geotagging and geospatial analytics; and is now coordinating a new national identification system, which is expected to generate cost savings of up to 2 percent of the country’s GDP over a five-year period (approximately US$6.09 billion, based on 2016 GDP estimates from the World Bank). Challenges remain as the PSA is still striving to make its work more effective and efficient, but it provides a compelling example of the value of investing in data governance and building high-level central data systems with the mandate to coordinate the production and use of a broad range of data and statistics across government.

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