As part of the celebration of European Statistics Day, 20 October, an event was held yesterday dedicated to the joint project of the State Statistical Office and Statistics Sweden, titled "Increasing the accessibility and use of official statistics in North Macedonia" and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
Speeches were given by the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Kalinka Gaber, the Ambassador of Sweden, Ms. Kristin Forsgren Bengtsson, the Governor of the National Bank, Ms. Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, and the Directors of the statistical offices of North Macedonia and Sweden, Mr. Joakim Stymne and Mr. Apostol Simovski.
The second part of the event included a panel discussion on the practices of communication and use of statistical data in North Macedonia and Sweden, monitoring the use of official statistics and interaction with providers and users of statistical data. The panel discussion was also attended by three independent panellists - Biljana Dukovska, President of the Anti-Poverty Platform, Bojan Kordalov, Communicologist, and Xhabir Deralla, President of CIVIL, who expressed their views on the use of statistical data, how they are used, the openness and transparency of the State Statistical Office and the mutual communication.
The general conclusion is that official statistics are the basis of every development policy, every strategy, as well as the basis for making everyday decisions of each one of us. Increasing the accessibility and use of official statistics is crucial in today's environment full of huge amounts of all kinds of data that often lead to misconceptions, misinterpretations and, ultimately, wrong decisions. Therefore, building trust and raising awareness about the use of official statistics will contribute to accelerating the democratic processes in the country, and will also help create inclusive policies at all levels of government in the country.
The joint project of the State Statistical Office and Statistics Sweden deals with exactly these topics, and the results are expected to contribute to greater and easier accessibility of official statistics, which in turn will increase their use especially in fact checking and fighting the fake news that have flooded the media all over the world.
