Report of the second meeting of the statistical commission for Africa

Abstract

The African Centre for Statistics (ACS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) organized the second meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa). the theme of this second meeting of StatCom-Africa was “Harnessing Financial and Technical Resources in Support of the Monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals in African Countries.” The work of StatCom-Africa II will provide a key input into the Global MDGs review taking place in New York. StatCom-Africa and ASCC provide leadership for the implementation of the Reference Regional Strategic Framework for Statistical Capacity-Building in Africa (RRSF). It has established a repository of data on Africa that is aggregated at the continental and subregional levels; as well as for individual countries, through a joint data collection and processing mechanism. One major achievement of the ASCC was the publication of the first ever Joint African Statistical Yearbook and development of a joint statistical database. The bureau of StatCom-Africa and the ASCC endorsed the inception of the African Group on Statistical Training and Human Resources (AGROST), which is a working group under the umbrella of StatComAfrica, to ensure the coordination of activities and initiatives in support of statistical training and human resources development in Africa. AGROST reported on its planned activities during Stat-Com II.