The Statistics for Development Division (SDD) of the Pacific Community would like to acknowledge the financial and technical contributions made towards the development of the Pacific Data Hub - Microdata Library:

In 2017, the World Bank’s Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) approved a grant to improve data dissemination and use in the Pacific region.  The TFSCB grant entitled Improving Data Dissemination and Use in Pacific Islands Countries aims to support the achievement of the Ten Year Pacific Statistics Strategy objectives and the implementation of various recommendations formulated in recent reviews of statistical programmes in the Pacific region.  The World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) committed USD 500,000 to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems and social and economic planning agencies to provide policy-makers and analysts with important demographic, economic and social indicators for planning and decision-making. 

This is achieved by pursuing two specific objectives:

1. The first objective is to promote and increase the access to, and use of, existing data for research and policy making. This will be achieved by:
   1. Establishing the https://microdata.pacificdata.org/ which will preserve, catalogue and disseminate Pacific microdata sets. 
   2. Producing and disseminating a collection of harmonized datasets obtained by standardizing data from existing surveys and censuses.
2. The second objective is to improve the quality and relevance of future data collection, by developing a sampling strategy for socio-economic surveys conducted in the region.  The emerging and changing data needs (including the demand for new and more disaggregated indicators to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals), and opportunities offered by new technologies (such as computer-assisted personal interviewing, justify the development of a new approach to sampling adapted to the specificity of the small island states of the Pacific region

Additional support through the New Zealand Aid Programme as part of the development of the Pacific Data Hub - Microdata Library enabled Peer-to-Peer exchange initiatives to strengthen capacity in metadata production and publishing, which drew on existing skills and knowledge in the Pacific region to assist resource constrained statistical offices.

SPC is very grateful for the generous assistance provided by the World Bank, NZ-MFAT and Peer-to-Peer exchange providers from the Pacific Island countries and territories.