Expert Group on International ClassificationsNew York, 13-15 May 2013

Expert Group on International ClassificationsNew York, 13-15 May 2013

Valentina Ramaschiello

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsStatistics Division

Aligning Classifications for Agricultural Statistics with Other International Standards

Aligning Classifications for Agricultural Statistics with Other International Standards

o Provide an overview of the activities conducted by FAO since the last Expert Group Meeting in 2011

o Seek for advice and cooperation from the EG on some issues highlighted at the end of the presentation

presentation’s purpose presentation’s purpose

o The FAO statistical system is decentralized in 15 Divisions in 8 Departments

o Different pace and activities on classifications

Focus on Statistics Division (agriculture)

Statistics Division(AG. excluding FO and FI)

Other Divisions

CPC review ● ●

implementation (underway) ●

HS review ● ●

implementation ● ●

SEEA review ● ●

implementation (underway) ●

CSA implementation (underway) ● ●

Questionnaire ●

Guidelines ●

FAO statistical systemFAO statistical system

Implementation of international classifications

in FAO

o CPC 2.1. expandedo SEEAo CSA

Improvement of international classifications

to suit the needs of agricultural statistics and FAO activities:

o review of CPC & HSo harmonization between CPC & HS

Activities with countries

o survey on national classifications for agriculture and food productso guidelines and training material under the Global Strategy

FAO work on international classificationsFAO work on international classifications

review and implementation of international classifications

review and implementation of international classifications

• FAO proposal for revision of CPC Ver.2 submitted to the Expert Group on International Classifications in May 2011

• Aim: to increase proper detail and make CPC Ver.2.1. structure more suitable to meet the needs of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture and Forestry production domains

• Types of modification:o Improvement of the definition texto Improvement of the explanatory notes o Structure reorganization and/or modification of boundaries (change in the code)o Increased detail, mainly at subheading levelo Additional items added in the annex for agriculture

review of CPC 2.1review of CPC 2.1

• Result: 117 new items for agriculture, fishery, and forestry included at sub-class level (five digits) and 92 new agricultural products included in the annex (six and seven digits)

review of CPC 2.1review of CPC 2.1

• FAO has endorsed the implementation of CPC as reference classification for agriculture and food products in FAO (excl. fishery and forestry)

• Problem: detail on some food and agriculture products is not yet sufficient in CPC, particularly in terms of primary product of origin as FAO is a sector-specific Organization and CPC is a general purpose scheme

• Solution: CPC expanded for agriculture and food productsCPC expanded for agriculture and food products

– CPC structure at 5 digits added with a 6/7 digit to accommodate more disaggregated agriculture and food data

• The CPC expanded has been presented to UN Statistical Commission in February 2013 as an official annex to the CPC

implementation of CPC 2.1 in FAOimplementation of CPC 2.1 in FAO

o CPC Ver.2.1 includes 430 agriculture primary products, food and other processed products (excluding fishery and forestry products)

o 70% CPC-HS items: one-to-one and one-to-many (one CPC code as the aggregation of many HS codes)

o 30% CPC-HS items: many-to-one (one HS code is split across many CPC codes) and many-to-many partial links

CPC SectionTotal items

for agriculture

Number of CPC items with partial

links to HSShare (%)

Products of agriculture, horticulture and market gardening (S0)

204 50 24

Steam and hot water, ice and snow, natural water (S1)

3 3 100

Food products, beverages and tobacco, textile […] (S2)

197 76 39

Waste or scrap (S3) 26 6 23

Total 430 135 31

primary products in Section 0 are better aligned with HS

most of the partial links between CPC and HS concern processed products in Section 2 of the CPC Ver.2.1

harmonization between CPC 2.1 and HS 2012

harmonization between CPC 2.1 and HS 2012

Why is CPC - HS harmonization important for FAO Statistics Division?

o SD collects and disseminates data on production (abt. 250 commodities) and trade (abt. 600 commodities)

o Supply Utilization Accounts (SUA) and Food Balance Sheet (FBS) are compiled harmonizing:

• production data (currently FCL - CPC in the future)

• and trade data (HS)

into one common framework (currently FCL - CPC in the future)

It is critical to ensure the highest degree of harmonization between the two to avoid heavy data conversion/estimates

harmonization between CPC 2.1 and HS 2012

harmonization between CPC 2.1 and HS 2012

o (FAO has contributed significantly to the review of HS 2012: includes 300 new subheadings for agriculture and fisheries)

o HS Review Sub-Committee (RSC) in May 2012: the FAO proposal for the review of HS 2017 is submitted

o Discussion took place at the RSC in May and November 2012

o Coverage: fishery products, citrus fruit, forestry products, agriculture machinery and fertilizers

o The proposal is currently under evaluation by the WCO members and will be discussed for the third time in May 2013

review of HS 2017 (and 2012)review of HS 2017 (and 2012)

o FAO Statistics Division compiles statistics on LU since 1960s

o data collected on annual basis through the LU questionnaire sent to countries

o FAO contributed to the development of LU (and land cover) classifications for SEEA (between 2008-2012)

o with the adoption of the SEEA Central Framework by the UNSC (43rd session) FAO revised data collection relating to LU starting from 2013 the LUC has been aligned with the SEEA LUC

o while doing so, a number of issues have been raised by different Departments in FAO on possible improvement of the land use classification in the SEEA

Land classifications are marked as “ad interim”: clarifications are needed on what this means (is the classification final?) and if it is planned to review them?

implementation of SEEA Land Use Classification

implementation of SEEA Land Use Classification

Implement the CSA in:o FAOSTAT o FAO corporate statistical programme

Basic ruleso to allocate each dataset or information under one sub-domain only, with the possibility to develop additional break down for FAO purpose at lower levelo not to deviate from standards structure

Exception to basic rules (adjustments made for FAO purposes)o Domain 0 for Food security and nutrition statistics is created as at the heart of the FAO mandate

o Domain 3 on Environment and multi-domain statistics is split into 3A Environment and 3B Multi-domain statistics considering the significance of these statistics for the FAO

Improved guidelines and explanatory notes in CSA would be helpful to a correct and more homogenous interpretation of the classification’s categories

implementation of CSAimplementation of CSA

activities with countriesactivities with countries

o Assess countries’ practices and the extent to which international standards are implemented (particularly CPC)

o Understand how classifications are managed, i.e. stored, maintained and disseminated

o Identify country needs on technical assistance

Results:

o 196 countries contacted

o 81 (41%) countries replied

70 /81 (86%) countries use one or more international or supranational classification for agriculture and food statistics

46 /81 (57%) have asked for capacity development from FAO on classification issues

survey on national classification for agriculture and food productssurvey on national classification for agriculture and food products

The total number of classifications reported is 134 distributed as follows:

Region Total sentReplies

receivedRegional

response rate (%)

North America and Europe

4633

-21 are EU members-

72

North Africa and Near East

25 11 44

Sub-Saharan Africa 48 16 33Asia and Pacific 44 14 32Latin America and Caribbean

33 7 21

TOTAL 196 81 41

Regional distribution and response rate of countries involved in the survey

survey on national classification for agriculture and food productssurvey on national classification for agriculture and food products

The Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics is a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the FAO, the UN and the World Bank

The aim is to build sustainable national statistical capacity to produce agricultural statistics and increase their use for better policy decisions

Pillars1) Identifying a minimum set of core data and determining national

priorities2) Integrating agriculture into national statistical systems3)Sustainability of agricultural statistics through governance and

statistical capacity building

To strengthen cooperation with countries on international classifications is recognized by the mission and pillars (notably 2 and 3) of the Global Strategy

Guidelines (and training material at later stage) Guidelines (and training material at later stage) on classifications for agricultural statisticson classifications for agricultural statistics

guidelines and training material under the Global Strategy

guidelines and training material under the Global Strategy

Structure of the guidelines

The guidelines will benefit from the contributions of a pool of external experts by way of substantive inputs, comments and peer review

Part 1

theoretical framework

Part 2

good practices from countries and supranational organizations

Part 3

major classifications used in agricultural statistics

Part 4

tools for classification management

survey on national classification for agriculture and food productssurvey on national classification for agriculture and food products

o Group of classification experts will be invited to Rome to participate in a three day workshop to be held at the FAO premises half-way through the work plan

o The workshop provides an opportunity to:

• deepen the theoretical framework of classifications

• hear from countries and supranational organizations their experience, good practices, and constraints they may face when implementing international classifications for agricultural statistics in their systems

• obtain insights from custodians of international classifications about the main purposes and features of subject matter classifications and how they can be used for agricultural statistics

• share the most updated tools available for classification management

• promote the utilization of the guidelines across countries

o The proceedings of the workshop will be used to finalize the content of the guidelines

guidelines and training material under the Global Strategy

guidelines and training material under the Global Strategy

FAO follow-up actions o Fine-tune CPC ver.2.1o Share information with the EG on the state of the FAO

proposal for HS 2017

EG advice and cooperation is sought on:o Work to reduce the partial links CPC – HS in agricultureo Clarification on the SEEA “ad interim” land classificationso Strengthen cooperation with the EG and UNSD in particular

for the development of the Guidelines and Training material under the Global Strategy

follow-up and questions to the EG and UNSDfollow-up and questions to the EG and UNSD