For the purpose of setting up a national implementation programme of the 2008 SNA it is necessary to assess the current capacity of all aspects of the statistical production process to produce national accounts and supporting statistics. From this assessment goals regarding the relevant scope and detail of the national accounts and supporting statistics required to inform policy and decision making needs to be set in consultation with all relevant stakeholders in the national statistical system. A plan, based on the self assessment, identifying a set of actions to accomplish statistical and institutional goals is an important step to establish a road map for the implementation of the 2008 SNA and supporting statistics and is instrumental in the improvement of the statistical agenda to ensure adherence to best practices in official statistics.

For the change over to the 2008 SNA the ISWGNA recognizes that three main dimensions need to be taken into account for determining implementation goals and for monitoring the progress of implementation. These are:

scope of the accounts

compliance with the SNA concepts

quality issues

All three aspects need to be assessed for a better and more comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the System.

The ISWGNA recognises training as one of the essential elements of statistical capacity building to facilitate the implementation of the 2008 SNA and supporting statistics. For this purpose the ISWGNA established a training knowledge base on available training material and courses.