The Seventh Session of the UN-ESCWA Statistical Committee convened today at the UN House, Beirut, under the auspices of Lebanese Minister of State for Administrative Reform Jean Hogassapian. Opening statements were delivered by the Vice-Chairman of the Sixth Statistics Committee, Mr. Abdallah Al Othayyem; Mr. Ahmed Hussein, Head of the Statistics Coordination Unit on behalf of UN-ESCWA Executive Secretary Mervat Tallawy; and Minister Hogassapian.

In her speech, Tallawy said statistics and public policy are strong partners that go hand in hand. The first works to measure and survey what the second achieves in the development process. Statistical indicators reflect the progress of peoples in achieving what they set out to do vis-à-vis goals and economic and social targets. She noted, “UN-ESCWA has made an exceptional effort over the last two years in the field of statistics so as to make available comparable statistics for evidence-based policy-making. This was done through the implementation of many activities that focus on enhancing the capacity of member countries to produce statistics based on international standards that can address the needs of local and international development programs and the requirements of regional integration.” Tallawy added, “Through its vision and overall orientation, UN-ESCWA seeks to build a regional statistical system aimed at raising national capacity for gathering and disseminating accurate and reliable statistics related to the economic and social aspects in each member country to enable public and private sector data users to formulate development policies and monitor these countries’ progress on the level of national and international development programs, foremost among them the Millennium Development Goals.”

For his part, Minister Hogassapian said, “Statistical information, whether accurate or not, is no doubt the basis for sustainable development in the economic, demographic, social and environmental fields. It is hence fundamental to the formulation of policies based on facts and lead to progress in planning and democratic decision-making. In this regard, UN-ESCWA has been attentive in following up the issue due to its awareness that there is a mutual relationship between statistics and development. The region’s development priorities cannot be tackled without relying on measurement techniques to discover how true things are and the extent of progress made in achieving the required goals. As a matter of fact, Lebanon and many other Arab countries are part of the General Data Dissemination System established by the International Monetary Fund in order to generate first-rate statistical data.”

Hogassapian stressed Lebanon’s interest in answering UN-ESCWA’s call to prepare a national strategy for developing statistics and enhancing human and financial resources within official central statistical organizations and the statistical units of ministries and administrations. He cited Lebanon’s strong belief that this will impact positively on the formulation of economic and social policies. The minister said enhancing statistical capacity, one that is scientific, accurate, and reliable, would, unlike disaggregated statistics, bolster development in Lebanon at a vital stage wherein the country’s economy is going through a transitional period.

Speaking on behalf of the Chairman of the Sixth Statistics Committee, Vice-Chairman Othayyem of Saudi Arabia stressed the importance of attending sessions of the UN-ESCWA Statistics Committee in enhancing coordination between the Central Statistics Organizations so as to strengthen statistical work in Eastern Asia and promote the exchange of expertise in this field.

Following the opening session, Syria took over the chairmanship of the Statistical Committee from Bahrain, after which Egypt was elected as first vice-chair, UAE second vice-chair, and Kuwait as Rapporteur.

This inter-governmental meeting brought together representatives from UN-ESCWA member countries represented by the directors of the Central Statistical Organization. Moreover, representatives of concerned international and regional organizations were in attendance as well.

Continuing until 9 November, the Seventh Session of the UN-ESCWA Statistical Committee is addressing major issues that concern statistical work in the UN-ESCWA region and its direct impact on the development process. Topics being tackled include: the Millennium Development Goals and statistical literacy, capacity-building in statistics for the formulation of evidence-based policy-making, as well as issues related to information and communication technology indicators. In addition, the committee following up on the implementation of the recommendations of the sixth session, and reviewing progress made in statistical activities since that period including the implementation of the International Comparison Program (ICP). The Session is also presenting the proposed work programme in the field of statistics for 2008-2009.