SPARS STRATEGIC PLAN FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL STATISTICS VIETNAM 2017-2026 GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE, MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND INVESTMENT, VIETNAM February 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS FORWARD ACRONYMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.2 Emerging Needs for Strategic Plan on Agricultural and Rural Statistics 1.3 SPARS development process 1.2 An In-depth Country Assessment (IDCA) Report 1.3 A Country Proposal Paper (CPP) 1.4 Administrative Structure of Vietnam 1.5 Policy context and demand for agricultural and rural statistics 1.1 Overview of the agricultural sector in Vietnam 1.2 Strategic planning of agriculture 1.3 Vietnam’s fisheries development strategy 1.4 Vietnam forestry development strategy 1. Sustainable development strategy 1.6 Framework for the collection of statistics in Vietnam 1.7 Integration of agricultural and rural statistics into the NSDS 1.1 The General Statistics Office 1.2 Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) 1.3 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) CHAPTER 2 EVALUATION 2.1 The population and housing census, 2009 2.2 Five Yearly Agricultural, Rural and Fishery Census 2.1 Rural, Agricultural & Fishery Census in Vietnam2016 2.7 Farm and land Statistics 2.8 Other Agricultural Statistics 2 2.1 Labour force survey 2.10 Assessment of user satisfaction and needs 2.3 Use of information and communication technology 2.5 International cooperation in agricultural statistics 2.1 SWOT analysis for overall agricultural statistics system 2.2 SWOT analysis for sub-sectors CHAPTER 3 PLANNING 3.1 Vision and mission 3.2 Strategic goals and outputs 3.3 Calendar of censuses and surveys 3.4 Data release calendar 3.5 Advocacy-communication plan 3.6 Monitoring and evaluation plan 3.7 Financing ANNEX I Development plan of the Vietnam statistical development strategy 2011-2020 and vision to 2030 (VSDS11-20) ANNEX II Statistics law pursuant to the constitution of socialist republic of Vietnam ANNEX III List of Minimum set of core data for Vietnam ANNEX IV Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis of agricultural and rural statistics in Vietnam ANNEX V Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis of sectors of agricultural and rural statistics in Vietnam ANNEX VI Action plan of the strategic plan for agricultural and rural statistics (SPARS)Vietnam ANNEX VII Logical framework of the strategic plan for agricultural and rural statistics (SPARS) Vietnam ANNEX VIII Budget of the strategic plan for agricultural and rural statistics (SPARS) Vietnam Acronyms 3 ADB Asian Development Bank AF Administration of Forestry, MARD AFFD Agricultural, forestry and fishery statistical Division ARDO Agriculture and Rural Development Office ARS Agricultural and Rural Statistics CIS Centre for Informatics and Statistics, MARD CP Country Proposal DAFF Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Statistics DSO District Statistics Office ESCAP United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific FAO Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations FAORAP FAO Regional office for Asia and Pacific GS Global Strategy GSO General Statistics Office IC International Consultant IdCA In depth Country Assessment ISS Institute of Statistical Science MARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MONRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment MPI Ministry of Planning and Investment NC National Consultant NIC National Implementation Committee NSC National Strategic Coordinator NSDS National Strategies for the Development of Statistics NSIS National Statistical Indicator System PSO Provincial Statistics Office RAP Regional Action Plan to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics SDG Sustainable Development Goals SPARS Strategic Plan for Agricultural and Rural Statistics SRV Socialist Republic of Vietnam TWA Technical Working Committee on Agriculture and Rural Statistics UNSC United Nations Statistical Commission VSDS Vietnam Strategies for the Development of Statistics WB World Bank CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 Background The Global Strategy to improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (FAO 2011) is a global initiative endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission, aimed at restoring and repositioning national and international agricultural and rural statistics systems for meeting the requirements of various stakeholders in the twenty-first century. The three pillars of the Global Strategy are: i) Establishing a minimum set of core agricultural and rural statistics required to meet current and emerging requirements, ii) Integrating agriculture in the national statistical system, and iii) Ensuring sustainability of the agricultural statistics system through governance and statistical capacity building. The second pillar of the Global Strategy seeks to assist developing countries prepare and implement long term Strategic Plans for Agricultural and Rural Statistics (SPARS) as a means to integrate agriculture into National Statistical Systems (NSS).
This is in line with the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) being promoted by Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21). As a component of NSDS, SPARS is expected to provide a 5-10 year vision for the development of the national agricultural and rural statistics system. For the purpose of SPARS, agriculture covers crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry, and includes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of agricultural and rural development. The need for countries to develop a SPARS arises because the coverage of agricultural and rural statistics in the NSDS is often limited.
Agricultural statistics are quite weak in many countries because of the reliance on administrative reporting systems. There are often organizational weaknesses in the collection or reporting of data, duplication in data collection, methodological weaknesses, and shortage of financial resources for censuses and sample surveys. The SPARS process aims to build on the overall statistical strategy given in the NSDS to guide the future development of agricultural and rural statistics. It aims to evaluate the existing agricultural and rural statistics system, assess data quality, identify data gaps, and determine statistical programmes and interventions needed to improve the statistics.
The 5 SPARS also helps in coordinating and financing agricultural and rural statistics development activities. Vietnam has been a predominantly agricultural based economy. The substantial part of its topologically and climatically diverse agrarian economy is set in the Red River Delta in the northern part and the Mekong River Delta in the south, with a stressed natural resource base. Of the many agricultural activities, crop production is the major one and rice is the primary crop.
Vietnam is the fourth largest rice producing country in the world. The Government of Vietnam recognizes the importance of the agricultural sector in the economy and its contribution in eradicating hunger and malnutrition in the country. To help countries focus on core data for agricultural policy making and planning, Global Strategy of FAO advocates for a minimum set of core data. The minimum set of core data provides for identifying data needs, gaps and priorities in developing the SPARS action plan.
The minimum set of core data items for Vietnam has been prepared along with the required frequency and sources for each data item.2 Emerging Needs for Strategic Plan on Agricultural and Rural Statistics The Master plan of Production Development of Agriculture to 2020 and A Vision Toward 2030, the sustainable development strategy 2011-20, and the sub sectoral strategic papers included the goals and targets are set in terms of quantitative forms and the extensive monitoring and evaluation are made part and parcel of the strategies while the monitoring and evaluation of the strategies will need usage of agricultural and rural statistics. Such statistics will be imperative for the government to keep monitoring and to evaluate the periodic goals of Vietnam’s long term visions extended up to 2030. Setting up quantitative periodic goals and monitoring needs for future plans give a clear indication that there is definite recognition among the policy level government officials and policy documents of the necessity of the agricultural and rural statistics for such continuous monitoring of the strategies. With this policy level recognition of the requirement of accurate and timely agricultural and rural statistics for planning and policy making and for measuring the progress of agriculture sector credibly, need of an efficient and sustainable Agricultural and Rural Statistics (ARS) system has been acknowledged.
6 Vietnam has a partially decentralized statistical system where the General Statistics Office (GSO) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is authorized and mandated for collection, process and dissemination of almost all types of statistics of national importance. However, the line ministries also have partial responsibilities for data collections in their respective domains. The system comprises of two facets: the National Statistics System and Primary Statistics System. The National Statistics System includes the centralized statistics system (GSO) and local statistics offices (statistics offices of provinces, cities under central management and statistics offices of districts, towns) and statistics of ministries, ministerial- level agencies, government agencies, people’s supreme court, people’s supreme procuracy (which are all called ministerial statistics).
Primary statistics system includes: statistics of ward/commune and statistics of enterprises, administrative establishments, civil service units, organizations, associations. The government acknowledges the weaknesses and gaps in the current agricultural statistics, as well as the need to improve statistical methodologies in order to provide more reliable and timely statistics. It also recognizes that the agricultural statistics system needs to be integrated into the national statistics system. The government has welcomed the Global Strategy initiative and has fully supported its activities in Vietnam.
The VSDS11-20, vision to 2030 was developed to meet demands of the implementation of the socio-economic development tasks in the period 2011-2020 and the following years in accordance with article 34 of the Statistical Law (2003) that states “Developing the strategy and directing the strategy’s implementation, making statistical development plan, developing the national statistical indicator system and the national survey program”. The VSDS11-20, vision to 2030 was a timely initiative to meet the more updated requirement of data for economic analysis, planning and development direction. A sector specific strategy for agriculture statistics within the framework of VSDS is therefore, needed to tackle the issues related to agricultural and rural statistics.3 SPARS development process Vietnam, being one of the countries with strong agriculture based economy, is selected in 2015 for regional implementation of the Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region. A National Strategic Coordinator was appointed in GSO to coordinate the GS activities in the country.
National and international consultants were recruited to assist with the implementation. The launching phase commenced with the holding of first stakeholders’ workshop in July, 2015. The workshop provided an orientation to the Global Strategy, its action plan and the approach 7 to the preparation of SPARS. A second workshop of the stakeholders was organized in January, 2016, in which the draft roadmap and the initial findings of the assessment were discussed.
The workshop also held group discussions to identify important short term technical assistance areas for improving agricultural and rural statistics In the course of the development of the SPARS, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) had the following outputs at various stages: 1.1 The initial preparations for designing the SPARS are covered in the launching phase. The first step is for the national authorities to acknowledge the importance of agricultural and rural statistics (ARS) for development planning and to recognize the need for a strategic approach to developing the ARS system. Administrative structures are established for the SPARS design process, including establishing the SPARS design team, putting in place management procedures for the design work, and identifying stakeholders. The final step in the launching phase is the preparation of a roadmap for the SPARS development.
The roadmap delineated what needs to be done, by whom and when. In the outline of roadmap for the development of SPARS in the Vietnam, specific activities to be undertaken, a schedule and the resources necessary to develop the strategy is also clearly defined. This roadmap for the development of SPARS in Vietnam was prepared in August 2015. The roadmap will lead to the preparation and endorsement of the SPARS document; the organization structure needed to design and implement SPARS is proposed as under: i) VSDS National Implementation Committee (NIC) ii) Technical Working Committee on Agriculture and Rural Statistics (TWA) iii) Design Team comprising of NSC, International and National Consultants and sub-sectoral representatives from crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries.
Overall direction for preparation and approval of SPARS will be obtained at the highest level of the Government possible. GSO will lead the process for its preparation and implementation.