17.11 Coordination of International Statistical Activities#
17.11.1 Global coordination mechanisms#
The UN Statistical Commission has established two global coordination mechanisms for international statistical activities—the Committee for the chief statisticians of the United Nations System (CCS-UNS) and the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA). Both report to the United Nations Statistical Commission[1]. This section will also briefly describe the regional coordination of international statistical activities.
Committee for the chief statisticians of the United Nations System (CCS-UN)
The Committee for the chief statisticians of the United Nations System (CCS-UN) was formally established on 10 September 2014 in accordance with the decision 45/112 of the UNSC. The Committee comprises (🔗) the statistical services of United Nations funds and programmes, United Nations specialized agencies and the United Nations Secretariat, including the regional commissions, the mandates of which include the provision of international official statistics in the context of the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities (🔗). The Committee adopted its terms of reference (🔗) in 2016.
The Committee operates in close collaboration with the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA). All members of the CCS-UN are also member of the CCSA (see E/CN.3/2020/6) (🔗).
The 51st session of the UNSC recommended to the Economic and Social Council the adoption of the draft resolution “Strengthening coordination of the statistical programmes in the United Nations system”. The resolution requests (Chapter I of the Final Report of the session) (🔗):
CCS-UN to strengthen coordination of statistical programmes more effectively within the United Nations system, guided by and in support of the work of the Statistical Commission; and
UNSD, as the secretariat of the CCS-UN to provide adequate support to the coordination function of the Statistical Commission as well as related activities of the Committee, by pursuing a range of activities aiming at improving functional coordination, regional and national coordination, coordination in thematic areas, coordination with other professional networks and coordination of the secretariat.
Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA)
In September 2002, the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) was established to continue coordination in the statistical sector, which had been done by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) Subcommittee on Statistical Activities prior to 2002. The terms of reference can be viewed and downloaded here. Members of the Committee (🔗) comprise international and supranational organizations, whose mandate includes the provision of international official statistics regarding the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities, and which have a permanent embedded statistical service in their organization and regular contacts with countries.
17.11.2 Regional Coordination Mechanisms#
Many entities of the UN statistical system have regional offices. These regional offices include, for example:
the five FAO Regional Offices (Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; Latin America and the Caribbean; and, Near East and North Africa), ILO Regional Offices, UNDP, UNESCO regional offices in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok and Jakarta), UNFPA, UNICEF (ROSA and EAPRO in Asia, among five others), six UN Women regional offices (Latin America and the Caribbean; Asia and the Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; West and Central Africa; East and Southern Africa; and, Arab States), UNODC, and WHO.
One of the mandates of the UN Regional Commissions (UNRCs) is the coordination of statistical activities in their respective regions. This coordination is typically implemented through the respective intergovernmental statistical bodies and other regional coordination mechanisms.
The ongoing Secretary-General’s United Nations development system reforms propose establishing a new regional coordination mechanism (RCM): a regional coordination platform (RCP), to replace the regional coordination mechanism bodies.
Example of regional coordination mechanisms in Asia - Pacific
For example, in the Asia-Pacific region, the RCM has a statistics thematic working group (🔗) that has been sustaining the implementation of the 2030 Agenda by supporting monitoring and statistical capacity development of national statistical systems and stakeholders. The Thematic Working Group on Statistics has prepared to continue under the Regional Coordination Platform, probably with a renewed name and terms of reference.
UN Regional Coordination Group on Data and Statistics for Europe and Central Asia (RCGDS-ECA) was created in January 2020 in response to the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General on the reform of the UN development system. It is co-chaired by UNECE and UNEP, and it reports to the Conference of European Statisticians (🔗).
The aim of the group is to promote coherence and integrated system-wide action amongst regional actors from the UN system and beyond - with the ultimate aim of improved national statistics with respect to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of accurate, reliable and comparable data, disaggregated by sex, age, migration status and other characteristics towards better monitoring of national policies and priorities, including those related to the SDGs.
Example of regional coordination mechanisms in Latin America and the Caribbean
Considering the commitment of the ECLAC member States to the regional processes deriving from the 2030 Agenda and set out in the Quito “Mitad del Mundo” Declaration of the VIII meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas in November 2015, and bearing in mind the need to decide on joint actions in response to the statistical challenges involved in implementing the Agenda, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean expressed their intention of implementing a regional work plan that would combine and coordinate all the region’s statistical activities related to the SDGs and their indicators, to generate synergies within the regional statistical community.
Thus, at its XV meeting, held in June 2016, the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas approved the creation of the Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean as a joint working mechanism for establishing a regional plan to address the information requirements arising from the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The Statistical Coordination Group for the 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean will be composed of representatives of the national statistical systems member of the IAEG-SDG and the HLG-PCCB, ensuring the representation of subregional groupings.
Since its creation, the Group provides strategic leadership in the process of implementing the SDGs in the region with regard to the development and calculation of indicators, statistical monitoring and reporting and promote national ownership of the regional statistical monitoring framework for the 2030 Agenda; and foster capacity-building, cooperation and coordination, including by ensuring coherence between regional and global follow-up, acting as a hub for the region’s major statistical actors.