National statistical offices in Latin America and the Caribbean met to review the global indicators for the SDGs and assess progress on data generation and compatibility, during a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC.
ECLAC officials called for strengthening national statistics systems and offices and highlighted NSOs’ independence and autonomy.
The ECLAC NSOs' meeting follows the 48th Session of the UN Statistical Commission, which convened in New York, US, in March 2017.
6 April 2017: National statistical offices (NSOs) in Latin America and the Caribbean met to review the global indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to assess progress on data generation and compatibility. The regional NSOs’ meeting took place from 4-6 April 2017, on the occasion of the 16th meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA) of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the first region to have a Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Alicia Bárcena, ECLAC Executive Secretary, called for strengthening national statistics systems and offices. She noted that Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the first region to have a Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Statistical Coordination Group was established within the SCA, and is made up of the LAC countries that are also members of the UN Inter-Agency and Expert Group on the SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) – Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica and Mexico – and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (HLG-PCCB) – Argentina, Bahamas, Ecuador, El Salvador and Saint Lucia.
Mario Palma, the Chair of the SCA Executive Committee, highlighted NSOs’ independence and autonomy. He also underscored the importance of including geospatial data in their work.
Previous to the LAC NSOs’ meeting, the 48th Session of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC 48) convened in New York, US, from 7-10 March 2017. The Statistical Commission agreed on a draft resolution on the global indicator framework for the SDGs, and recommended it to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for adoption. The framework includes the initial set of global indicators that will be complemented by indicators at the regional and national levels to be developed by Member States. The draft addresses capacity building for statistics, welcoming the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Statistics for Sustainable Development Data (CTGAP). It also urges countries, UN funds and programmes, specialized agencies, the UN Secretariat, the Bretton Woods institutions, international organizations, and bilateral and regional funding agencies to intensify their support for strengthening data collection and statistical capacity building. The resolution also urges international organizations to base the global review on data produced by national statistical systems, and it calls upon the UN system to support national efforts in building and strengthening national statistical capacity, in particular in developing countries.
Joining support for the resolution, Panama said each country’s speed of implementation will differ, while Paraguay stressed that it will need the support of the UN Statistics Division and UN system. [ECLAC Press Release on NSOs’ Meeting] [SCA Website] [SCA Meeting Information] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on UNSC 48]