Statement of voluntary compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics for girls' education results estimates
Updated 19 February 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-government-support-for-girls-education-worldwide/statement-of-voluntary-compliance-with-the-code-of-practice-for-statistics-for-girls-education-results-estimates
The Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) published provisional estimates which monitor the number of children it has supported through its Official Development Assistance (ODA)-qualifying interventions on education.
Although the results estimates are not official statistics or National Statistics, where possible FCDO follows the UK’s Code of Practice for Statistics in their production. This page explains how these pillars have been applied to FCDO’s education results estimates in a proportionate way to demonstrate voluntary compliance, in line with the Guide for Voluntary Application of the Code.
FCDO’s voluntary compliance with the pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics
Trustworthiness
Confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data.
FCDO’s education results estimates are overseen by statistics advisers embedded in FCDO departments who are members of the Government Statistical Service (GSS). They have a professional line of accountability to FCDO’s Chief Statistician who has a professional line of accountability to the National Statistician.
The material made available through the FCDO UK government support to girls’ education worldwide page has been enhanced to strengthen usability and transparency. It includes a page on the provisional headline education statistic and a methodology note for the indicator.
Revisions will be made to the education results estimates as more up-to-date information becomes available. Revisions are approved by FCDO’s Chief Statistician ahead of publication.
Quality
Data and methods that produce assured statistics.
Information on FCDO’s results is collected from FCDO Posts, central FCDO departments and multilateral institutions. The data is collected from a variety of sources, such as representative sample surveys of households, management information systems held by partner country governments and individual project data generated from routine project monitoring by FCDO’s partners, often in challenging environments.
Given the range of data sources used, the accuracy of the results data varies and is subject to the quality of the underlying data source. In many cases FCDO uses data collected by others (eg partner country governments or international organisations) and therefore FCDO has limited control over the quality of the data. Verifying the quality of the data provided by partners can be challenging in the places where FCDO works.
FCDO’s results estimates are produced in line with published methodology notes which set out the rules under which results can be counted for different sector-specific indicators.
Statistics Advisers in FCDO undertake quality assurance of the results data to minimise error. The types of error which FCDO aims to minimise include:
- double counting: identifying unique beneficiaries and avoiding duplication in reporting between partners, programmes, FCDO departments, and across years
- FCDO attribution: accurately associating results with FCDO interventions or funding
- counting non-related activities: ensuring results are for qualifying activities only, as specified in the methodology note
Value
Statistics that support society’s needs for information.
FCDO’s headline education results are designed to give an overview of the return on the UK’s official development assistance (ODA) spend on education and enable FCDO to report publicly on its achievements.
FCDO’s education results are presented in a dedicated web page: FCDO UK government support to girls’ education worldwide. This presents all relevant material in one location, enhancing accessibility to data and supporting information for the latest year and all previous years. It also provides additional case studies from our programmes to help the public understand the nature of interventions covered in the results.
Accompanying this provisional results publication is a 2-page summary document, which includes notes on strengths and limitations of the data, further supporting the public’s interpretation of these provisional results.
FCDO will publish updated results when more data becomes available. Updated results will be more complete and will incorporate data from more bilateral and multilateral programmes. Following this, FCDO will continue to update these education results estimates as its education programmes continue to deliver and reach more children globally.
Go back to about results estimates for children the FCDO supported to gain a decent education. You can also find out more about UK government support for girls’ education worldwide.