The Committee heard the 2020 Activity Report of the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

As the Chairman of the Committee, Mikheil Sarjveladze, noted, the report encompasses the plans for 2021, where a number of issues related to the protection of human rights are reviewed - "I would especially like to highlight the ongoing and implemented projects in cooperation with UNICEF and UN Women, which provide a good opportunity to prepare evidence-based improvement solutions and outline specific indicators”.

The report was introduced by Gogita Todradze, Executive Director of the National Statistics Office of Georgia – “The Georgian National Statistics Office, with the involvement of foreign experts, drafted and submitted to the Government of Georgia the Bill on Official Statistics. The new document bears on the recommendations of the Global Assessment, as well as the Model Law on European Statistics, and is in full compliance with the Association Agreement”.

According to him, the demand for statistical data has been growing recently, thus requiring the priorities to be in maximum compliance with the requirements and needs.

"Our website is visited by 662,000 unique users per annum. In 2020, we created a number of interactive portals, such as the National Accounts Portal, the Foreign Trade Portal. With the support of UNICEF, "Statistics for Children and Adolescents" was created, which is a completely new word in the system of official statistics, which has no analogs worldwide. Only the Belgian statistics enjoy a similar type of web portal, although our functionality far exceeds it. The portal will significantly help children and adolescents to deepen their knowledge in the field of statistics, improve their ability to perceive information and think analytically, be more informed about children's rights and make individual evidence-based decisions”, - the rapporteur noted.

According to G. Todradze, within the reporting period, new standards of employment and unemployment had been introduced; With the support of the UN, the possibility of using alternative data sources in the field of tourism and migration have been assessed.

The speaker focused on the projects implemented to assess the impact of the targeted social assistance program on children and the well-being of their families -"With the support of UNICEF, we have commenced estimating the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of families and children”.

According to him, Geostat closely cooperates with international organizations and statistical services of EU countries - "Georgia has been elected as the UN Chairman of the Bureau of the Statistics Committee of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for a two-year term”.

As the rapporteur added, in 2020 the Geostat worked closely with Eurostat, IMF, World Bank, and other international organizations, and it was in their assessments that Georgia has recently made significant progress in terms of developing a statistical system and introducing internationally recognized standards.

"In the framework of a joint project of the National Statistics Office of Georgia and the United Nations Women (UN Women) in Georgia, fieldwork on Time Use Survey began in September 2020. As part of the survey, data collection will take place over a period of one year and will be completed in September 2021. The aim of the study is to improve gender statistics and collect statistical information on the use of time, which primarily involves obtaining information about the time spent by women and men on various activities”, - the rapporteur elucidated.

He also expanded on the challenges and plans for 2021. As was noted, by 2021 it is planned to introduce new standards and methodologies, conduct new research and produce additional detailed indicators, which will provide an important basis for expanding the statistics area and calculating the basic indicators of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"We plan to improve data dissemination opportunities for people with disabilities, which means adapting the Geostat website and increasing their access to official statistics”, - G. Todradze remarked.

The rapporteur answered the questions of the MPs.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, M. Sarjveladze, within the framework of 5 projects presented in the report, there is a study, the results of which, including the existence of intermediate information, are of utmost importance - "There are many significant and interesting directions, which directly indicate the urgent need to make new decisions”.

As he added, the members of the Committee heard the important information - "Based on our cooperation, many interesting and fruitful projects will be launched. I have high hopes that our cooperation will be further enhanced”.