Published on United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (http://www.uneca.org)
Home > ECA strengthens statistical cooperation with eight countries of West Africa
Niamey, 30 July 2015 (ECA) - In the sidelines of a workshop held this week to review the Regional Statistics Programme 2015-2020 of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, (WAEMU) in Niamey, Niger, the General Directors of the National Statistical Institutes of the Member countries of the WAEMU, the Head of the WAEMU Statistical Center, the Chief Economist in charge of Data and Statistics at the World Bank, based in Washington, and the Deputy Director of the Statistics Division of the Central Bank for West African States, (BCEAO) held a working meeting with the officials of the Sub-Regional Office for West Africa of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
In his remarks at the meeting, ECA’s Joseph Foumbi reiterated the statistical cooperation among the ECA, the WAEMU and the National Statistical Institutes of Member countries. Mr. Foumbi notably underlined the institutionalization underway of the statistical focal points of the Office in each Member country of the WAEMU space and its full participation in all the regional meetings on statistics.
He also dwelt on the support currently being provided by the ECA to the WAEMU in the framework of setting up its centralized database. Moreover, he took advantage of the meeting to inform the Directors-General of the development of country profiles by the ECA and he sought their genuine collaboration for discussions and data sharing to support this important product of the knowledge of the ECA, the final objective of which aims at supporting the collective efforts of countries to achieving the socio-economic transformation of Africa.
For his part, the President of the Committee of Directors-General of Statistics of the WAEMU countries, Mr. Ali China Kourgueni, from Niger thanked the ECA for what he termed as “a
ECA strengthens statistical cooperation with eight countries of West Africa http://www.uneca.org/print/8309
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fortunate initiative” and assured the total and constant availability of the officials of the statistical structures. He said they would "work relentlessly to consolidate their collaboration."
He also commended the daily supportive activities of the ECA towards the WAEMU in the area of capacity building for statistical systems in Africa and reaffirmed their commitment to making every effort to contribute efficiently to the development of the country profiles.
Mr. Kourgueni stated that he hoped to see the cooperation among their institutions and the ECA, “further strengthened for the well-being and prosperity of statistics in Africa.” The country profiles, he said, are "a precious tool which will enable them to monitor the policies implemented in their countries.”
Source URL: http://www.uneca.org/stories/eca-strengthens-statistical-cooperation-eight-countries-west-africa
ECA strengthens statistical cooperation with eight countries of West Africa http://www.uneca.org/print/8309
2 of 2 10/6/2015 11:56 AM
