QUITO, Ecuador (CMC) – Caribbean statistical leaders have joined their counterparts from the Americas reaffirming their commitment to generating good-quality statistics for monitoring national public policies.
The heads of statistics in the region signed the declaration that also allows them to re-affirm support for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that was approved at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September.
The Mitads del Mundo Declaration was approved by the 36 delegations from member States and associate members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) at the end of the eighth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (SCA) on Thursday.
The declaration also urges the region’s governments to bolster their commitment to strengthening national statistical systems, establishing legal frameworks that provide professional independence to the national statistical offices, consolidate the leading role of official statistics and guarantee the human, technological and financial resources required.
The text also calls on the international community to channel resources to this end, on the basis of cooperation, technical assistance and financial support.
The three-day meeting also approved the resolutions recognizing the need to work jointly to design an implementation plan that enables the information requirements stemming from the 2030 Agenda to be covered gradually.
Delegates also approved both the report on the implementation of the two-year programme for regional and international cooperation activities in 2014-2015 and the Conference’s 2015-2025 Strategic Plan. They requested that ECLAC make a proposal for a regional programme that meets the member States’ needs in terms of training and statistical education.
In addition, the attendees agreed that the SCA’s Executive Committee for the 2016-2017 period will be made up of Mexico in the presidency, along with Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Spain and Uruguay.