Authorities from Latin America and the Caribbean discussed today the future of statistical production in the region and reaffirmed its relevance to address emerging needs and global challenges, during the twenty-third meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC (SCA-ECLAC), which was inaugurated at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile.
The two-day meeting will be attended by representatives of the region’s national statistical offices, regional and international organizations, and United Nations agencies, funds and programs, among other actors.
The meeting was opened by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Miosotis Rivas Peña, Director General of the National Statistical Office of the Dominican Republic, which holds the Presidency of the Executive Committee of SCA-ECLAC; and Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the Statistics Division of the United Nations (virtual). Also participating were Luis Fidel Yáñez, Secretary of the ECLAC Commission, and Rolando Ocampo, Director of the Statistics Division of the regional commission.
“The production of information must be central to public policy discussions. Only in this way can we ensure that our decisions are based on solid evidence and that our efforts for sustainable development are effective,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, in his opening remarks.
He added that statistical capacity is one of the most fundamental technical, operational, political and prospective (TOPP) capacities of institutions, and stressed that accurate, up-to-date and complete data are crucial to measuring development gaps and traps and evaluating policies aimed at closing the gaps and breaking out of the traps.
The ECLAC chief noted that countries in the region face significant challenges in producing official statistics, but there are also valuable opportunities to strengthen this production. One of the most promising developments is the use of administrative records as a source of information, he said.
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs stressed the importance of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, a subsidiary body of ECLAC, “which constitutes the main regional space for collaboration so that countries and international organizations can work together to find common solutions to statistical challenges.”
“The work and contributions of the Statistical Conference of the Americas have made notable progress in various lines of action, and it is our wish that these advances not only continue, but are strengthened. We hope that collaborative work among countries, within the framework of this Conference, continues to be a pillar for strengthening statistical production and its application in public policies,” he said.
The Director General of the ONE of the Dominican Republic, Miosotis Rivas Peña, addressed the challenges that topics such as big data and artificial intelligence represent for statistical production in Latin America and the Caribbean. “These have already found a place on our agenda, and require our commitment and collaboration,” she said.
She also stressed that strengthening the community of women leaders in National Statistics Offices is crucial. “Diversity in leadership not only enriches our perspectives, but is also essential to addressing the challenges we face in the field of statistics,” she emphasized.
Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the UN Statistics Division, for his part, stressed that Latin America and the Caribbean is a region that is part of the global community, characterized by our standards that are our common global language, so that we can agree from East to West, from North to South.
“I would like to thank all of you not only for working within your region, but also for being very active members of the global community in various agencies, working groups and in the Statistical Commission,” he said.
During the twenty-third meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC, representatives of the national statistical institutes of Latin America and the Caribbean will analyze the progress of the statistical cooperation programme at the regional and international levels. They will also review the regional challenges that should be addressed in the new Strategic Plan 2026-2035 of the Statistical Conference of the Americas and examine the progress in the execution of the Biennial Programme of Regional and International Cooperation Activities 2024-2025.
The Statistical Conference of the Americas is a subsidiary body of ECLAC and the main forum for discussing the development of statistics in the region. Its main mandates are to promote the development and improvement of national statistics and their international comparability, as well as international, regional and bilateral cooperation between national offices and international and regional organizations.
Along with the Dominican Republic in the Presidency, the Executive Committee of the CEA for the 2024-2025 biennium is made up of Argentina, Bahamas, Spain, Grenada, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.
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