The Forty-fourth Session of the Advisory Committee on Post Adjustment Questions
Warsaw, 15-22 May 2023
At this session, the Advisory Committee reviewed the ICSC secretariat’s proposals for the adaptation of the approved methodology for application to field duty stations for the 2021 round of surveys, as well as some methodological issues emanating from the 2021 baseline cost-of-living surveys at headquarters duty stations, including a review of web scraping and other big data sources in the context of post adjustment index calculations; measures to mitigate or neutralize the effects of pure methodological change in post adjustment index calculations; and a report on an investigation into the source of shocks in post adjustment index calculations. The Committee also reviewed the results of the secretariat’s investigations, as requested by the General Assembly in its resolution 76/240, namely: the feasibility, and impact, of establishing a separate post adjustment index for Bern, Switzerland; and a pilot study on the use of external data, in lieu of staff expenditure surveys, as a source of expenditure weights used in post adjustment index calculations. Another item reviewed by the Committee was a report on proposals for the re-design of the ICSC secretariat's infrastructure for the processing and management of cost-of-living survey data. A provisional agenda for the Committee’s forty-fifth session was also submitted for the Commission’s consideration at its ninety-sixth session.
The session was attended by representatives of many organizations and staff federations, as well as observers from Eurostat and the International Service for Remunerations and Pensions, partner agencies of the ICSC.
