In Portugal, IBGE debates statistics and democracy at the European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics
June 12, 2024 06h33 PM | Last Updated: June 18, 2024 12h22 AM
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) participated, at the beginning of June, in two events on official public statistics in Portugal. The president of the IBGE, Marcio Pochmann, was in the city of Estoril on the 4th for the event “Quality in NSOs within the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries): Leading the Future”, and between the 5th and 7th of June. Also in Estoril, the IBGE was at the 11th European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics, which brought together all countries linked to the European Union Statistical Office (Eurostat), to debate, among other topics, the importance of official statistics as a pillar of democracy, with 44 countries and 540 participants linked to national statistical offices.
The first event, promoted by the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), was aimed at presidents and directors of Statistics in CPLP member states, and focused on emerging issues related to the quality of official statistics and the sharing of experiences with Portuguese speaking countries.
Organized by Statistics Portugal (INE), the second event in Estoril had as its motto “Official Statistics as a Pillar of Democracy” and approached four main topics: institutional staff for quality in official statistics, innovation and investigation to promote quality of official statistics, the power of data and how they can serve Society, besides the capacity of National Statistical Offices to enjoy opportunities in a challenging environment.
“By taking part in the aforementioned conference in Estoril, the IBGE engaged in dialogues with presidents of National Statistical Offices of many European countries, and it was possible to observe how Much Brazil has been Moving in the right Direction to strengthen the sovereignty of its official data system. The constitution of the national System of Geosciences, Statistics and Data (SINGED) will lead to the increase of quality o four official statistics, with methodological homogenization, parity and interoperability between different databases thus reducing costs and not having to rework,” Mr. Pochmann stated.
Official statistics, based on evidences from reality, provide fundamental information for the decisions of policy administrators in public and private segments, and of voters as well, remarked the president of the on the relationship between statistics and democracy, adding that the fake news and information ended up causing official information to be discredited and making decisions guided, more and more, by far-fetched ideologies.
“Therefore, the growing attack to official statistics ends up damaging the data ecosystem, either due to the insufficient funding of survey institutes, or to the inadequate renewal of staff, or even the low compensation received by researchers, the absence of regulation for Big data and artificial intelligence companies and other reasons. Official statistics need to be strengthened having, as a basis, the tripod formed by Independence, best practices and transparency so as to avoid misunderstanding of reality evidences,” he concluded.
