Various officials from Stats SA and two members (Mr Ben Mphahlele (Chair) and Mr I Assam (Deputy Chair)) of the Statistics Council attended, the 60th ISI World Statistics Congress (WSC), which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during 26–31 July 2015 ‘to present, discuss, promote and disseminate research and best practices in every field of Statistics and its applications.’ The WSC is the flagship biennial conference of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and are usually organized by or in partnership with the host country’s National Office of Statistics. The recent previous ISI world conferences were as follows:
- 56th WSC Lisbon 2007
- 57th WSC Durban 2009
- 58th WSC Dublin 2011
- 59th WSC Hong Kong, SAR China 2013
The WSC in 2015 included 140 invited paper sessions, 90 special topic sessions and presentations from over 1,200 speakers with about 50 sessions per day with at least 1,600 registered participants from about 140 countries. Statistics SA also provided a stall for the majority of the 5 days to showcase its products and reports.
The WSC comprised of: 1) scientific, 2) administrative and 3) social programmes.
The scientific programme covered cutting-edge research, best practices, recent developments, and emerging challenges around various exciting work being done across the Globe and the impact that the wider statistical field is having, as well as about opportunities and challenges, especially related to the Data Revolution and the emerging Sustainable Development Goals. As a key part of this included a myriad of invited paper sessions (IPS), special topic sessions (STS) and contributed and posters sessions (CPS) on a very wide variety of areas. The scientific programme also included the following novel additions: 1) association presidents’ invited sessions, 2) special lectures by several distinguished statisticians, 3) Journal Paper Sessions, and 4) Lunchtime Round Table Discussions.
The Administrative Programme included meetings of the Executive Committees, Councils, General Assemblies and Committees of the ISI and the Associations, and special interest meetings relevant to the WSC.
The social programme included various opening and closing ceremonies, receptions, and dinners, tours of Rio by night, musical performances and cultural performances to give participants a flavour of the culture of the host country, daytime activities for accompanying persons. etc.
The opening ceremony included inputs and welcoming statements by IBGE’s President Wasmália Bivar, the ISI’s President Vijay Nair and the Brazilian Deputy Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management Dyogo Oliveira.
As stated above, one of the key issues included discussions and widely differing and sometimes polarising views about the value and relevancy of Big Data. Other key topics included new trends such as the increased use of social media, data on telephone use, traffic counts and satellite data, each with their own pros and cons, including issues of privacy and representativeness in terms of data collection.
There were a number of key presentations, insights and robust discussions at the WSC. It is very difficult to isolate all key presentations/ lecture/ debates/ conclusions reached. Every person who attended the WSC will have their own preferences. Several sources highlighted a key presentation/lecture made the Mexican statistician, Carlos Jarque, on the challenges for statistics in the digital world of the 21st century from the perspective of a developing country as well as various insights/ imperatives on Big Data, which needs to be more carefully managed and owned by developing countries and their statistical offices, especially on the African continent. Other interesting and popular presentations/ lectures included ‘Advancing Women in Statistics: investigating and redressing the gender imbalance’ where a number of significant contributions were highlighted, as well as ‘Mainstreaming Environmental Accounting.’
There was also a Women’s Networking Reception/Breakfast organized by the ISI Committee on Women in Statistics, which was an informal networking session with breakfast, combined with round table discussions, in order to assist in the development of mentoring relationships.
The full conference programme is available on the website: www.isi2015.org. The final presentations and conference report will also be available on the website when finalised/uploaded.
The next ISI WSC will be held in Marrakech, Morocco from 16-21 July 2017 (www. isi2017.org).