Effective Global Statistical Capacity with Organic Leadership

• Activity Number: 12
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 31, 2011 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Misrak Gezmu*+ and Olivia Blum*+ and Sonya Vartivarian*+ and Nilupa Gunaratna*+
• Companies: Government Accountability Office and Harvard School of Public Health and Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Keywords: open-code network ; statistical globalization

Abstract

In a time of frugal resources, what can we learn from nimble non profits with great track records, solid return on investment, and real outcomes for statistical capacity to complement national and institutional roles? The purpose of this session is to demonstrate how "effective global capacity occurs with organic leadership from the grassroots----the people affected by the data." (Nilupa Gunaratna). Such capacity would include evaluation of statistical programs and what Denise Lievesly calls "the integration of statistics across users and producers, educators and employers, practitioners and theoreticians" and "assistance in culturally sensitive ways allowing counterparts to decide what they need and for all to avoid statistical paternalism." Such capacity includes the increasing impact of global and local social networks in real time to collect, understand, synthesize, and use data for decisionmaking, from programmatic to policy levels.