Philippines National Statistics Office Data Archive launched (Manila, 30 October 2009)
The National Statistics Office (NSO) of the Philippines introduced to the public its Online Data Archive in a simple ceremony on 30 October 2009 (http://www.census.gov.ph/nsoda/) . Represented during the occasion were data users and government data producers. The data users were from the academe, policy-making institutions, an international organization as well as private individuals.
The gathering provided an opportunity for the data users to inform the NSO of the important information that must be contained in the documentation. Emphasized was the need for the series information to explain the changes in the survey over the years.
The Philippine Statistical System (PSS) is highly decentralized. The NSO is mandated to produce general purpose statistics. Subject matter data are produced by the concerned agencies. Aside from the NSO, three other government agencies trained in the IHSN Toolkit this year are now in the process of documenting surveys. These are the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, and the Central Bank of the Philippines. Representatives from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute were so impressed with the metadata documentation that they requested for an orientation of the Toolkit in their agency.
The NSO plans to populate the Data Archive with about a hundred surveys by year end. To complement the online Data Archive the NSO is scheduled to launch their Data Enclave in the first quarter of 2010.