PROJECT NAME : EUROSTAT & FAO Joint Catch DSD
STAKEHOLDERS : Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union), FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), DG MARE (European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries), JRC (European Commission Joint Research Center), ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) and NAFO (Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization).
CONTACT POINT : estat-fisheries@ec.europa.eu
SCOPE
The central aim of the project is to create a joint set of DSDs, codelists and simple validation rules for the catch collection in Fishery statistics between the European Commission and FAO (or DSDs which are otherwise compatible). It will also deliver an understanding of how code lists can be managed by different agencies on behalf of the wider fisheries statistics communities.
Deliverables are as follows:
- One or more DSDs suitable for creating SDMX files for catch statistics covering the needs of Eurostat and FAO;
- A single set of code lists for the DSDs (Area, species, gear& other cross domain concepts) and a strategy for managing changes to the lists and their dissemination.
- A proposed strategy how to do similar exercises in the future for closer cooperation between the EC and FAO. This should include a viewpoint on using a single versus multiple SDMX Registries, and how to accept/handle different code lists used by different organizations ;
- A list of requests for changes and detected issues for the software tools used.
DSDs for landings are not specifically part of this project although there are code lists in common (species, currency, country) and the deadline for requesting SDMX reports for landings is the same as for catch reports.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
FAO will be responsible for all fisheries related code lists, Eurostat will be responsible for all standard code lists (e.g. frequency, country, currency) and for creating the DSDs based on the agreed definitions.
The project aims to serve the immediate needs of FAO, Eurostat (and DG MARE) and so leadership will be joint. There is no formal project board and the project team will communicate developments and seek guidance through the project co-ordinator and regular meetings.
During the project life the stakeholders communicated with will be those either directly or indirectly involved (Eurostat, FAO, DG MARE, JRC, ICES and NAFO).
BENEFITS
As for all statistical domains in general, the use of SDMX aims at reducing the need for manual intervention. Indeed, the combination of common statistical standards (code lists) together with common technical standards (IT tools) should ensure a higher data quality and integrity.
It is also expected that it will provide greater transparency of what data is collected for what purpose and this may help in better targeting of data requests and reduced work for data providers where they are able to avoid sending the same data to different organisations. Overall it should contribute to improve the streamlining of workflow from national to regional, then to global levels
