President's message November 2020
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- Published: Tuesday, 17 November 2020 12:18
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President’s message November 2020
Dear IAOS members
In this latest newsletter, we cover upcoming deadlines for IAOS activities, highlights of the recent IAOS webinars, key decisions made in the recent IAOS Executive committee meeting, and an update on the SJIAOS.
Upcoming deadlines
Nominations for the 2021-2023 IAOS Executive – close 20 November
The Nominations Committee chaired by Mario Palma is still seeking nominations for the 2021-2023 Executive, which will be led by President Elect Misha Belkindas. Submissions should contain the CV and contact details of the proposed candidates and be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by 20 November.
2021 World Statistical Congress –Invited Paper Session Proposals close 30 November 2020
The 63rd ISI World Statistical Congress 2021 will be a virtual event, to be held from 11 - 16 July 2021. Proposals close on 30 November 2020, through the submission system - see https://www.isi2021.org/. Contact Jan Robert Suesser, IAOS representative on the Programme Committee for more information too (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
YSP 2021
Reminder that submissions close on 12 February 2021. See http://www.iaos-isi.org/index.php/statistics-prize Remember too that mentoring younger colleagues can also be a great way to help contribute.
Recent IAOS Webinars
Since early October, IAOS has coordinated a range of webinars, which despite the busy international webinar agenda have enjoyed active support. These have included:
IAOS and IASS Joint webinar to celebrate World Statistics Day: On the importance to Society of High Quality Public Statistics - 5 November 2020
Eurostat and SCORUS: Regional and local statistics for more informed policy making - 26 - 27 October 2020
New World Order and Official Statistics in Nigeria - 22 October 2020
Misuse of Statistics: Time to Speak Out - 6 October 2020
Our thanks again to speakers and attendees. Presentations and links to the Video Recordings are at http://www.iaos-isi.org/index.php/webinars
Proposals welcome for future webinars
Do you have an idea for a webinar related to current issues in official statistics? IAOS, with the support of the ISI Head Office are looking for ideas for webinars in early 2021. Please send suggestions, including possible speakers to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Key decisions made by the Executive Committee
Zambia 2020 Conference
The Executive confirmed the importance of holding the Zambia 2020 conference, as soon as practical. The Executive, in conjunction with the ISI and the Zambia Statistics office, expect to make a decision in early 2021.
Follow up on Misuse of statistics webinar
The Executive is actively looking at ways to progress many of the fundamental issues discussed in the Misuse of statistics webinar. This will include articles in the March 2021 issue of the SJIAOS, as well as another webinar. If you want to contribute, or have ideas on how the IAOS can progress this work, contact John Pullinger at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Possible contributions to the SJIAOS on this topic should be sent to the SJIAOS editor at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Membership – and outstanding Membership fees
The Executive reviewed the latest report from the ISI Head Office on membership. While membership numbers are up slightly since the previous year although a number of people have not yet paid their membership fees for 2020. If this applies to you, renew asap. Remember our membership fees are key to many of our activities including the YSP, running of webinars, planning and preparation for conferences.
Upcoming SJIAOS issues
December 2020, Volume 36, Issue 4.
The issue includes articles on Covid-19, in particular the impact on official statistics production. In parallel there is a discussion on this item on the Official Statistics discussion platform (www.officialstatistics.com) Other articles in the December issue include a section with 13 papers from younger official statisticians from the Asia-Pacific Statistics week, a section on ’Governing by the numbers (Data4Policy) ’, along with three of the winning manuscripts from the 2020 YSP. Beyond these, some 15 more articles deal with a variety of topics. This issue also includes an article closing the first discussion ("You say you want a [data] Revolution”) of the Official Statistics discussion platform.
Supplement to Volume 36: Extra issue in 2020 ‘‘Official statistics in Africa’
While the 2020 Zambia conference has been delayed, it was decided to go ahead with an extra issue of the Journal to not lose the momentum of the extra attention on statistics in Africa. This extra issue contains around 15 manuscripts from the African region. These will be pre-published (on-line) on the Journal’s website and it is expected that the paper issue of the supplement of the Vol 36 of the Journal will also be available at the end of the 4th quarter of 2020.
Call for Papers for future SJIAOS issues
The SJIAOS welcomes papers for future issues. If you have a possible paper, or even an idea for a paper, contact Pieter Everaers, the SJIAOS editor at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
SJIAOS Website Discussion Platform -www.officialstatistics.com.
Remember that the Discussion platform is the ideal venue to discuss and debate many of the current issues in official statistics. Discussions are based on statements from key papers in the SJIAOS. In June a discussion on ‘Pre-release access to official statistics is not consistent with professional ethics’ was launched. This was followed in September by two discussions - Crises, politics and statistics: Official statistics in the context of the Covid-19 crisis and a discussion on The Future of economic statistics.
The December issue of the SJIAOS will also launch a discussion on Successes and challenges of regional cooperation and capacity building in Statistics: the example of the Asia-Pacific region
John Pullinger
IAOS President
