Background 

Launched in April 2016, the Arab Development Portal is a data warehouse and knowledge platform that offers timely and high quality data and knowledge on development in the Arab region. It is a bilingual one-stop-shop that is home to a unique and dynamic database. It offers advanced tools for data browsing, data extraction and data visualisation. It also hosts a rich pool of additional resources such as blog entries, news, events and publications. The ADP currently covers 10 development topics (demography, education, energy, gender, labor and employment, macro-economy, poverty, private sector development, trade, water and food security) across all Arab countries. New topics such as health, environment, etc. will be added in the coming years. The ADP is in the process of expanding its database to enhance its thematic coverage of the SDGs and offer users an SDGs search engine and tracking tool. 

An interactive, multi-source and bilingual database 

The ADP aims to provide all users with easy access to an interactive database on development issues in Arab countries. The database currently hosts around 2,750 indicators offering recent data (year 2000 onward) extracted from websites of international organisations, national statistical offices (NSOs) of Arab countries and other governmental agencies. For each indicator, users have the choice of either accessing statistics produced by international organisations or opting for the official statistics published by the respective governmental agency (pending availability). In the coming years, the ADP will introduce new features to allow for more advanced technologies for updating its database that enables SDMX sharing and will introduce new visualisation and export tools to improve users’ experience and allow for more interactive analysis. In 2016, UNDP will create a special module for data sharing using SDMX technology to allow for data and metadata sharing in a manner that overcomes the differences in database architectures adopted by various producers of data. Strengthening partnerships with national statistical offices, line ministries, research centers and universities is a top priority.

Workshop Objectives

Bridging the gap between the needs of data users and the capacities of data producers is one of ADP’s main priority areas that have been discussed at length in a series of consultation meetings conducted since 2014. These consultation meetings have been key in identifying the competitive advantage of the ADP to cater for the changing needs of a diverse audience of internet users concerned with development in the Arab region. With data considered to be one of the fundamental elements of the accountability framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the online dissemination of SDGs-related indicators is important to widen the participation of development practitioners and engaged citizens and to ultimately enhance the national ownership of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Currently, the ADP team is exploring the development of an SDGs tracking tool that allows monitoring global and national indicators and at the same time offers a preliminary assessment of the statistical capacity of Arab countries to report on SDGs pending data availability.

In the past years, the ADP has succeeded in building strong relationships with most of the NSOs in the Arab countries. In various occasions, representatives of NSOs have discussed their needs in terms of statistical knowledge (data harmonisation, production of indicators from raw data, etc.) and dissemination mechanisms. 

More specifically, in November 2014, the ADP held a consultation meeting in Amman with representatives of eight NSOs . At that time, four countries, namely, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman were developing their websites using new strategies of disseminating statistical data. Participants also discussed the situation of data portals in their respective countries and briefed us on the on-going effort to improve on their visibility and relationship with users.  

Most recently, representatives of eight NSOs  joined the ADP Launching Ceremony and the Regional Workshop on the SDGs that followed over 25-27 April 2016. Among other topics, this workshop focused on open data and data dissemination, with a specific focus on the role of NSOs in publishing official statistics. Participants from the NSOs expressed their willingness and commitment to provide users with the data that are available but argued that very often the technical infrastructure limits their capacity to disseminate data in a more user-friendly format.

In follow-up to this continuous effort, the ADP is conducting its third workshop with the NSOs of the Arab states to discuss their efforts in improving the statistical framework such that it becomes more conducive to reporting on and monitoring the SDGs. In this workshop, the ADP team will introduce the participants to new techniques, trends and open-source technologies that can be used to manage statistical databases and develop interactive websites and data portals. 

The workshop will also offer participants guidance on how to improve their websites in a cost-efficient manner and in line with users’ growing needs to faster and more accessible data visualisation tools. The participants will be also introduced to new content management systems (CMS), in addition to the best available techniques in database architecture. This will include a presentation on the current data visualization tools offered by ADP and those available on the websites of the NSOs to identify current and future needs. It will include country presentations and highlights of best practices. At the end of the workshop, the NSOs will be asked to participate in an online questionnaire on their capacity building needs in data dissemination.