NBS workshop prepares for next statistical system strategic plan |24 May 2018
A two-day workshop for National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) to support the establishment of specific roadmap for strengthening statistical institutional environment to measure, monitor and report on the sustainable development goals in Seychelles ended at the Eden Bleu hotel yesterday.
Results from the workshop will eventually be incorporated in the next National Statistical System Strategic Plan which is being prepared.
Held under the theme ‘Enhancing the capacity of Seychelles to improve institutional mechanisms and procedures for the production and utilisation of SDG indicators’, the workshop continued to build capacities and share knowledge of best practices on data gathering and institutionalising reporting mechanisms for the global goals from partners across the region.
The workshop, which was opened by the secretary of state for finance, Patrick Payet, saw the participation of producers of official statistics, policy makers, NGOs, civil society, journalists, resident experts from multi-lateral and bilateral partner organisations and other stakeholders.
It is expected that the outcome of the workshop will support the establishment of specific roadmap for strengthening statistical institutional environment to measure, monitor and report on the sustainable development goals in Seychelles, to be eventually incorporated in the next National Statistical System (NSS) Strategic Plan.
During the period leading up to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, there was widespread acknowledgement by member States and the United Nations system of the critical need to strengthen at all levels the capacity of statistical systems to produce timely and reliable statistics and data to assess implementation of the sustainable development goals and targets.
The ten-year implementation plan (2014-2023) of the Africa Agenda 2063 has also placed huge demands for statistics on African countries. The demand for disaggregated data will certainly pose difficulties and increase the level of complexity for developing countries, many of which face challenges to produce even basic statistics which meet international standards.
To respond to this enormous demand placed on countries, ten entities of the United Nations Secretariat joined hands to implement a comprehensive programme of action centered around strengthening national statistical systems to measure, monitor and report on the sustainable development goals.
Through these efforts, the programme also supports national capacity to assess its internal readiness for measuring and reporting on all of the 17 SDGs, and defining the short-term and long-term actions needed for increasing its capacity to produce accurate and timely data in a sustainable fashion.
Seychelles has been selected as a target country for the implementation of Pillar 1 of the programme which aims to enhance capacity of countries to strengthen statistical institutional environments and production processes across multiple statistical domains to measure, monitor and report on the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
The activities in target countries are fact finding and assessment of the current institutional environment and production processes; national workshop on the roadmap for strengthening statistical institutional environments to measure, monitor and report on the sustainable development goals and advisory mission to support implementation of the roadmap and related actions.
“This SDG agenda began in 2015 and it will end in 2030. So it’s already three years since its set up. Therefore we need to start collecting indicators so as to have an idea where we actually are and whether we will be able to achieve these targets by 2030. So time is really flying and this is one of our priorities. We all need to work together, in collaboration because at the end of the day when we compile these indicators, it’s not something for the NBS alone, but other organisations also as they are all as important,” said Laura Ah-Time, chief executive of NBS.