Administrative data collected by governments and service providers in the course of their day-to-day business is an increasingly important source for the production of official statistics. There is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems to leverage the use of administrative data for statistical purposes, in order to fill gaps in the data available to policy and decision makers to monitor progress and implement the 2030 Agenda, and to address to emerging challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the progress in making increased use of these data for statistics production has been slow in many countries. What are the main obstacles, and can informal engagement and discussions lead to increased common understanding? This session will bring both administrative data holders from various ministries and agencies, potentially also from the private sector and civil society, together with representatives from national statistical offices.

They will meet and exchange on various different aspects related to data sharing based on a set of questions posed by facilitators. The questions will partially be open ended to allow for free flow of thoughts, but will also cover concrete considerations on legal aspects, confidentiality, standards and definitions, etc.

The session will start with a discussion in a panel, followed by an open exchange among all participants and will be summarized by bringing a few cases to plenary exchange at the end.

The session is organized by the Collaborative on Administrative Data which has as one of its main objectives to foster experience exchange and practical level learning to help increase the use of administrative data for statistics production.