Partnering for statistically literate societies
Partnerships are instrumental for statistically literate societies to flourish. Statistical literacy is a common objective for many stakeholders - National Statistical Offices, Schools, Universities, national associations and international networks and organizations – and they all have different advantages to offer. National Statistical Offices are concerned with the accurate use of official statistics and are particularly well placed to demonstrate the application of statistics in relation to public policy issues. They have direct communication lines with policy-makers, and in some cases with media representatives and business associations. The goal of Schools and Universities is to educate future generations, they have pedagogical expertise and work directly with kids and young people. A number of related initiatives led by teachers’ and academic associations brings innovative approaches and helps advocate for and mainstream statistics in primary, secondary and higher education. International networks and organizations help share knowledge across countries and promote the use of best practices.
Specific set-ups and roles of the stakeholders would vary depending on a national landscape, as they may have different capacities, resources and networks. Working in partnerships offers an opportunity to amplify ongoing statistical literacy work and identify and jointly address gaps in meeting the specific needs of different target audiences.
The session will be an opportunity to highlight the role of partnerships between Academia, NSOs, Schools and Associations to contribute to strengthening statistical literacy of the general public and specific target groups. A number of examples will be presented during the session by International Statistical Literacy Project from the countries it is working with; by Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística from Brazil; by University of KwaZulu-Natal on their Teachers4DaraAnalytics program; and by UN Statistics Division on the inventory of statistical literacy initiatives by the Global Network of Institutions for Statistical Training (GIST). A representative from UNITAR leading the GIST Task Team on statistical literacy will be a discussant in the session.