Bureau of Statistics (BOS)

Bureau of Statistics

Overview

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Bureau of Statistics (BOS) KP is the statistical arm of the government for the collection, consolidation, processing, analysis, publication and dissemination of official data.

As the central public entity charged with the collection and validation of data of critical socio-economic variables, BOS’ enhancement is critical to the project planning cycle for the province.

Bureau of Statistics

SUB INTERVENTIONS

KP Data Portal

The data portal is an interactive online repository that consolidated and integrated all the statistics collected by BOS in the last 25 years

OVERVIEW

SEED is currently working with P&DD in nourishing a culture of evidence-based planning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The development of BOS’ data portal is a key milestone in this regard which will promote access and use of data and evidence to inform the Government of KP’s policy and planning processes. In addition, the portal will not only enable planners to make better-informed decisions but will also empower citizens to contribute to policies that are better designed to their needs and to a more engaging relationship with their governments.

PROGRESS

The Portal went live in April, 2022. While undertaking the Portal development, SEED was able to digitise data sets on key economic sector indicators since 1996 and house them in a newly developed central database capable of producing strong visualisations useful for data analysis and policy insights.

Through the portal:

Users can analyse and download KP’s demographic and economic data since 1996.
Browse data across Districts, Sectors, Indicators and Years as well.
Browse and analyze sector wise, sub sector wise, district wise year wise and city wise data
Visualize, plot and compare more than one indicator in the form of bar charts, pie charts, line charts, tree charts, bar & line charts and X-Y axis charts.

Trainings & Seminar

SEED held different trainings with the government departments on the KP Data Portal. The aim is to inform planners about the Portal, its utility and how to use it for evidence-based policymaking.

We also held a seminar (watch seminar) with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) to discuss the value of data for better planning, policymaking, programming, and investment management.

OVERVIEW

SEED has been actively exploring potential partnerships for BOS aimed at efficient data collection, management, and validation. For instance, SEED is communicating with the Office for National Statistics, the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, on the possibility of an ONS-BOS partnership. A long-term partnership between the two will strengthen the capacity of provincial statistical systems and the internal capacities of BOS KP.

PROGRESS

Workshop to Explore the Scope of the Partnership Between the Bureau of Statistics (BOS) KP and the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS)

A virtual workshop was conducted on 8th June 2021 and six areas of collaboration identified:

Provincial statistical strategy
Regional accounts
Interdepartmental data sharing systems
Data quality standards
Primary data collection
Statistical strategic leadership training

OVERVIEW

The Nightlights data, which uses satellite images of an area’s nighttime lights, is an innovative approach to assess the growth patterns of a regional economy and the socio-economic dynamics within and between districts. It can inform policymakers on a range of public policy and development issues such as urbanisation, industrialization, employment, poverty, standard of living, land use, environment, energy and so on. Estimating economic activity using nightlights data is a first of its kind initiative in Pakistan, undertaken by SEED in collaboration with Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). It has added to BOS’ data collection/analysis capabilities at the district and sub-district levels. The report help us to estimate:

District-level GDP, GDP growth and income per capita for KP’s districts
Patterns of growth and the distribution of economic activity within KP’s major cities
Province-level estimates of GDP

Progress

The report on estimating economic activity using nightlights was followed up by SEED in two important ways to ensure sustainability and continued uptake: Firstly, a series of webinars were conducted with policy practitioners to disseminate findings and discuss practical applications of the results to public investment planning. Secondly, a team of government officials from the Regional Accounts Wing and the GIS Wing of the Planning and Development department, Government of KP were trained to estimate regional GDP independently, allowing this exercise to be completed in-house for future years. The SEED team is now building on these efforts to support the Government in practical applications.