Commonwealth Youth Development Index

26 Commonwealth Youth Development Index: National and Regional Toolkit
The more likely an indicator is to help make changes or decisions,
the better it is to include. For example, if you are looking to
access funding for environmental sustainability, then indicators
which link directly to the environment and the effect it has on
the domains of youth development will help your case more than
indicators that have no environmental aspects.
A helpful resource on indicator methodology is Eurostat’s manual
Towards a harmonised methodology for statistical indicators
(Eurostat 2014). 2
6.4 Quality framework
Many national and international statistical agencies have their
own data quality frameworks and associated tools to test the
veracity and appropriateness of datasets. If you are in a country
that has such toolkits it may be best to use them, as they are
likely to have been tested on local datasets and be accepted by
local stakeholders. National quality assurance frameworks can
be found using the United Nations Statistics Division search
tool. 3
To be considered fit for purpose, most quality frameworks look
for similar attributes of data. These include:
• Trustworthy sources
• Relevance to the topic
• Timely
• Accurate
• Interpretable
• Accessible
• Coherence
Such information can then be compiled in a data quality statement
or used to ensure that adequate caveats are used when analysing,
reporting or relying on the data.
A sound example of a data quality framework and accompanying
tools can be seen in the Australian Bureau of Statistics framework 4
and the National Statistical Service 5 tools.
Using the ‘Evaluation tools you can use’ section (8.2) may also
help to ensure that all aspects of an indicator’s reliability and
usefulness are considered.