Our Approach
ODW Consulting (ODWC) is a consulting firm with extensive experience in statistical reform and open data policies and practices. ODWC assists clients to improve legal and policy frameworks, management and organizational structures, data collection and compilation capabilities, staff capabilities, organizational innovations, and information systems capabilities of the organization. ODWC staff and consultants draw on experience from distinguished careers to offer clients the assistance needed to achieve local priorities in alignment with international standards.
Our Story
ODWC staff and consultants have distinguished careers in national statistical agencies, international organizations, regional agencies, and academia. They have worked on over 100 countries worldwide, including China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Russia, India, Nigeria, Namibia, and many others. They have provided support and advice to these countries in many areas of official statistics. ODWC staff and consultants have developed statistical capacity with partners such as national statistical offices (NSOs), the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and others.
They have managed large and small scale projects and performed technical work in improving national accounts, development of questionnaires and sampling frames for household surveys and performed estimates of poverty lines. They have advised countries in developing labor force surveys and improvement of agricultural statistics. They have managed implementation of large-scale systems projects for the management and worldwide dissemination of data and metadata.
Core Team
Misha V. Belkindas
Dr. Misha V. Belkindas, IAOS President (2021-2023) is the Managing Director of ODW Consulting with over three decades of experience in the development of statistical capacity building programs around the world. Prior to founding ODW Consulting, Dr. Belkindas developed and led the World Bank’s lending program for statistical capacity building, STATCAP; led the creation of trust funds, such as Statistics for Results Facility and Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building; and guided the creation of the International Comparison Program’s round 2005 and initiation of round 2011. He also is a co-founder of the NGO Open Data Watch and serves on its board.
Lilia Saetova
Ms. Lilia Saetova is the Director of Operations of the ODW Consulting responsible for day-to-day management and implementation oversight of ODWC’s programs and projects. She holds over ten years of experience with the World Bank working on statistical capacity building, governance and institutional development projects in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and Somalia. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2011, Ms. Saetova worked at the United Nations Development Program in the Kyrgyz Republic. Most recently, between 2021 and 2023, she also served at the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS), where she provided management and implementation support to IAOS activities.
Ms. Saetova’s academic training is in public policy and international relations. She holds Master’s degrees from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, and Kyrgyz Russian-Slavic University.
Emmanuel Fiadzo
Dr. Emmanuel Fiadzo is the Director of the ODW Consulting Sub-Saharan Africa programs. He was a fellow of Practice at the Blavatnic School of Government, University of Oxford, and the Policy and Operations Manager, London School of Economics-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth, and Development. Prior to joining the Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, he served as the Cluster Leader for Economic Management and Governance for the World Bank office in Liberia and as Senior Economist (World Bank) for the Republic of Guinea, Gabon, Equatoria Guinea, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, between 2003 and 2017.
He was a consultant for UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), Senior Statistical Advisor to the Ghana Government Statistician and the statistical offices of Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique and Mali (between 1994 and 2003) and a fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. Dr. Fiadzo has extensive experience as a policy maker in fragile countries including the Central Africa Republic (where he served as the Senior Economic Advisor to two Prime Ministers of the Central Africa Republic).