The statistical offices from the Netherlands, Finland, Estonia, Spain, and Slovenia shared their experience of developing, institutionalizing, and implementing in their countries a register-based statistical information system under an experience exchange program with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Weekly sessions were organized during February and March by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the financial support of the India-UN Development Partnership Fund, which is managed by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). 

The information system will use the administrative data available in the state registers and will provide complex and timely statistical data on population and migration (including domestic and international migration), as well as on vital events (such as births and deaths, marriages, and divorces). 

The foreign experts explained a number of aspects related to the establishment of the information systems in their countries.

For example, it took Spain more than 20 years to develop such an informational system, and now it has comprehensive information about the most important demographic events. This was possible thanks to the appropriate legislation and popularity enjoyed by the Spanish statistical office. Finland set up a Statistical Population Register 40 years ago, which is still used to conduct register-based censuses. Estonia managed to digitalize the exchange of statistical data, which are used both for population censuses and statistical surveys. In Slovenia, the spending for population and household census decreased 5 times after it started using administrative data for these purposes. 

‘Setting up an informational system for population and migration statistics, by learning from the experience of developed countries, will allow the Republic of Moldova to have timely data about the dynamics of the population, and will facilitate data collection in circumstances like COVID-19 pandemic, decreasing the costs of data production’, said Nigina Abaszada, UNFPA Moldova Resident Representative.

The General Director of NBS, Oleg Cara, mentioned that ‘In the long-term, the informational system on "Population and Migration Statistics" will support NBS in transitioning from traditional census to combined and afterward to the register-based census and, in combination with the Business Register and the Statistical Dwelling Register, will support more efficient production of data in different statistical areas via a multi-register-based system.’

“The India-UN Development Partnership Fund exemplifies South-South cooperation at work,” said Adel Abdellatif, Director, Ad Interim (a.i.) of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. “As South-South fund managers, it is a pleasure for UNOSSC to see how the India-UN Development Partnership Fund is effectively enabling the sharing of knowledge across countries in areas of such critical importance as is the measuring of development progress through sound statistical systems.”

For more details about the development of the statistical information system, please see the project factsheet.