The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $43 million loan to help improve the quality of official statistics in Paraguay.

Boosting the ability to produce timely, reliable and accessible statistics is crucial in order to provide adequately inform the activities of the government, the private sector, and all citizens, particularly in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paraguay’s 2030 National Development Plan underscores the importance of official statistics as a key tool for the design, monitoring, and evaluation of public policies.

The program will support a series of key activities, including conducting the 2022 National Population and Housing Census (CNPV, after its Spanish initials) and the Indigenous Census. It will also contribute to fully use administrative records for statistical purposes and strengthen the technical, operational, and organizational capabilities of the National Statistics Institute (INE, after its Spanish acronym). This will help INE improve the quality of official statistical information, underpin its efforts to monitor Sustainable Development Goals’ progress, produce high-quality data, and encourage more and better access to statistical information by both the public and the private sectors.

The CNPV 2022 will be aligned with the digital transformation challenges and demands for demographic information for the next ten years. It will feature technological innovations such as satellite imaging to help collect mapping data, electronic tablets to gather data from collective households, and the development of software to recruit and train operational staff online. The program also contemplates creating a virtual platform (Geoportal) that will allow users to access georeferenced statistical information to help academia and the public and private sectors to familiarize themselves with its use.

The CNPV 2022’s success will depend to a large extent on ensuring optimal technical and operational conditions to offer a wider population coverage and finer geographical granularity. The enhanced results will help better analyze living conditions and access to services for specific segments of the population, including women, indigenous groups, and persons with disabilities.

This initiative builds on progress made in Paraguay such as the December 2020 enactment of Law No. 6670 commanding the modernization of the National Statistics System (SISEN, after its Spanish acronym) and creation of the INE.

The IDB’s $43 million loan is for a 25 year term, with a 5.5-year grace period and an interest rate based on LIBOR.