3. Request ECA and World Bank to scale up their support and fund-ing for activities of the seven workfund-ing groups of StatCom-Africa, in the implementation of their respective work programmes.
4. Call upon partners to support the immediate establishment of the African Group on Statistical Training (AGROST) and the pooling of funding for its Statistical Training Programme the STPA.
5. Request partners to improve their collaboration at country lev-els, in order to support the entire national statistical systems, including adequate funding for statistical operations of line min-istries and national statistical association, especially by setting up and participating in groups of partners devoted to statistics.
6. Request governments, partners and donors to provide budget support to the national statistical offi ces (NSOs) and to align their supports to the core activities of NSOs and line ministries through contribution to the pool of funding.
7. Urge governments, partners and donors to implement NSDS with adequate funding for statistical operations, including those of line ministries and increased participation in the 2010 Round of Population Censuses.
8. Request countries to fund national scholarship of their students admitted to the Statistical training Centers (STCs) and request partners, especially the World Bank (WB) and AfDB to make every effort to allocate international scholarships for the stu-dents studying at the STCs, through the permanent secretariat of AGROST and its STPA;
9. Request development partners to increase funding for the use of statistics and bridge the gap between data development and their analysis and use;
10. Call on all stakeholders to support FASDEV and implement the above recommendations.
11. Request ECA, in close collaboration with the AfDB, the PARIS21 Secretariat and the World Bank, to convene the next meeting of FASDEV, as pre-StatCom III meeting, preferably in early 2012.
The sponsors of the draft recommendations commit themselves to amending them according to the participants’ comments and distrib-uting the offi cial amended version by the end of March 2010.
Fourth Forum on African Statistical Development
(FASDEV III) Communiqué
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTER BULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTERBULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTER BULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTERBULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTER BULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTERBULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN The UN Statistical Commission, which serves as the apex of the
global statistical system, held its 41st session from 23-26 February 2010 in New York. The Commission emphasized the critical role that solid statistical information plays in advancing the develop-ment agenda as well as in addressing the contributions of offi cial statistics in emerging issues, such as rapid economic estimates, improved monitoring of food production and framework of environ-ment statistics.
The 41st session was attended by over 130 countries with sentation from Heads of National Statistical Offi ce and by repre-sentatives of 40 international and regional agencies. Some of the highlights of the Statistical Commission’s work were:
a. World Statistics Day. The Commission approved for the fi rst time in the history of offi cial statistics to observe a World Sta-tistics Day. It will be held on 20 Oct 2010 (20-10-2010). The World Statistics Day will celebrate the many achievements of offi cial statistics, anchoring on the values of service to the nation and to the world, integrity, and professionalism. It has requested a letter from the Secretary General to all Heads of Governments to convey the importance of offi cial statistics, the need to strengthen national statistical system, and to request for the observance of the World Statistics Day.
b. Methodological developments. The Commission worked on new methodological developments in four high priority policy areas. The Commission (i) approved the global strategy on the development of agriculture statistics, as a means to monitor food production and prices; (ii) approved manuals on the com-pilation of trade fl ows in both merchandise trade and in trade in services, and on water statistics; (iii) agreed to foster the de-velopment of global geographic information management and endorsed a development plan on this issue; and (iv) approved the work on a quality assurance framework and a global inven-tory on statistical standards to assist countries to improve the quality of their work.
c. Monitoring of development indicators and the progress towards
the MDGs. With respect to the monitoring of development in-dicators and the progress towards the MDGs, as mandated by the General Assembly, the Commission reviewed and ex-pressed satisfaction with the technical work of the Interagency and Expert Group on MDG indicators, which is led by DESA.
The work of the IAEG is particularly important as it prepares the MDG data base for the 2010 MDG review. It asked the IAEG to continue its work on data availability and discrepan-cies and to report back to the Commission annually.
d. Statistical capacity building. The Commission once again stressed the urgency of statistical capacity building at the national level. Further assistance to developing countries is needed to build and strengthen their capacity to produce and disseminate quality data on economic, social, demographic, and environmental issues. The Commission asked the Statis-tics Division of DESA (UNSD) to intensify its capacity develop-ment activities.
e. Statistical development. The Commission welcomed the work done by the UN agencies as well as Bretton Woods institu-tions and regional entities, led by UNSD, in the area of statisti-cal development. The collaboration of all agencies had truly facilitated the development of national statistical systems in member states and made the functioning of the global statisti-cal system smooth and effective.
The four day offi cial session was accompanied by an extensive programme of side events which began almost a week before the commencement of the Commission sessions. Over 40 side events were held on the margins of the Statistical Commission sessions.
The major events of substantive nature which were open to all par-ticipants were:
Seminar on Emerging Trends in Data Communication and
Dis-♦
semination, 19 February 2010
High Level Forum on Offi cial Statistics: “Are national Statistical
♦
Systems Effective?”, 22 February 2010
Learning Centre on Dissemination of Census Results with
♦
CensusInfo, 22 February 2010
Learning Center on Environment Statistics and Environmental
♦
Accounting, 22 February 2010
Brief note on the 41st Session of theUN Statistical
Commission
Yacob Zewoldi, United Nations Statitical Division
AFRICAN STATISTICAL NEWSLETTER BULLETIN D’INFORMATION STATISTIQUE AFRICAIN
Learning Centre on Country Practices in SDMX, 22 February
♦ 2010
Measuring Property Prices - Seminar in memory of Svein
♦
Longva (former Director General of Statistics Norway), Lunch time 23 February 2010
Modernization of Statistical Production Process, Lunch time,
♦
24 February 2010
Population Censuses in Post-Confl ict Countries, Lunch time,
♦
25 February 2010
Seminar on International Trade Statistics: Finding answers for
♦
a changing world, new challenges and opportunities, After-noon of 25 February 2010
The speakers at the various events and during the offi cial sessions underlined the importance of national statistical systems in meeting the needs of policy makers and other users. Continuous innovation of the ways data are compiled and disseminated is crucial to main-tain offi cial statistics relevant. The importance of the Commission as a technical body addressing statistical issues was emphasized.
A 5-day exhibition, 22-26 February 2020, was organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) in collaboration with the member countries of the region and UNSD. The exhibition focussed on statistical de-velopments and achievements in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Statistical publications including books, posters, brochures, and CDs as well as promotional material on statistical activities were displayed at the exhibition. The exhibition was an overwhelming success.
For more information, please visit http://unstats.un.org/unsd/stat-com/sc2010.htm