Today, important agreements were reached for strengthening regional statistics, at the conclusion of the Sixth Meeting of the Executive Committee for the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The meeting, presided over by Mexico, took place 25 and 26 September, in Madrid, Spain, and convened 17 countries from the region, as well as nine international bodies. Committee members preliminarily approved the proposed strategic plan 2005-2015 and guidelines for the Biennial Programme of Regional and International Cooperation Activities 2007-2009, placing special emphasis on three substantive issues: the monitoring of Millennium Development Goals, the 2010 census round, and institution-building in national statistical offices.
The Statistical Conference of the Americas, a subsidiary intergovernmental body of ECLAC that promotes the development of official statistics, will meet for the fourth time since its creation in 2000 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The meeting will take place the last week of July 2007 at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile, with the goal of evaluating the work undertaken and adopting decisions and initiatives for 2007-2009 so as to equip the region with greater statistical uniformity, quality and coverage.
The Strategic Plan preliminarily approved by the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference asks the Governments of the region to ensure that their national statistical systems reach an adequate institutional level, with sufficient resources, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics of the United Nations.
