Since the Millennium Summit in 2000, countries and international agencies have been compiling data to monitor progress towards the MDGs. The availability and quality of the data at the international and national levels is however not the same. The UN Statistical Commission has called attention to the need of reducing these discrepancies, and countries worldwide have pointed out the importance of assessing progress at sub-national levels and better explore national sources.

The combination of the increased demand to address discrepancies between national and international MDG monitoring and the introduction of a new MDG framework make this the opportune time to organise a regional workshop on MDG monitoring.

Objective

The workshop will train participants from Arab countries representing national statistical offices and ministries from Western Asia and Northern Africa region on recommendations for reporting of MDG data, producing data on the new MDG indicators, improving the quality of data. In addition, the workshop will establish strategies for dealing with data discrepancies and data gaps at the national and international level. In the training, the participants will have the opportunity to discuss statistical definitions and methodologies with representatives of international agencies, as one of the aims of the workshop is reducing discrepancies between national and international data used for MDG monitoring.