Since its establishment in 2015, the Praia City Group on Governance Statistics has been working across countries and regions to help establish international standards and methods for the compilation of statistics on the major dimensions of governance. In 2020, the Praia Group published a Handbook on Governance Statistics which was hailed as an important steppingstone towards achieving international standards in all areas of governance statistics. This Handbook is based on a framework for governance statistics that includes eight dimensions of governance, namely non-discrimination and equality, participation in political and public affairs, openness, access to and quality of justice, responsiveness, absence of corruption, trust, safety and security. 
 

A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Praia Group published a Guidance Note on Governance Statistics (also available in French and in Spanish) in the COVID-19 Era, which examines the same eight thematic areas, this time from the perspective of governance information needs most likely to arise during the pandemic or similar crises, while keeping in mind the operational and financial constraints placed on traditional field-based operations. In many ways, this Guidance Note is an “executive summary” of the Handbook for time-pressed and resource-constrained statisticians.
 

For its second term (2020-25), the UN Statistical Commission requested the Praia Group to “further improve methodologies and standardization and to support national statistical offices around the world in implementing those methodologies.” In response, the Praia Group has established two Task Teams to help advance statistical methodologies on two dimensions where they are still lacking, namely Participation in Political and Public Affairs and Non-Discrimination and Equality. 
 

National Statistical Offices (NSOs) are leading the process: the NSOs of Norway and Tunisia co-chair the Task Team on Participation, and the NSOs of Finland and Peru co-chair the Task Team on Discrimination. Model survey questionnaires were developed by the two Task Teams and are now ready for cognitive testing. In parallel, the Task Teams are also working on Guides to respond to a growing demand from NSOs on how to strengthen the collection and use of administrative data for statistical production on Participation and Discrimination.
 

To contact the Praia Group Secretariat, hosted by the national statistical office of Cabo Verde (INECV), please write to group.praia@gmail.com.