Over the past decade, the development of statistics has been at the center of the debates of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. Two instruments are central to the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa. These are the African Statistics Charter (ASC) and the Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA). The African Charter on Statistics was adopted in February 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while the first version of SHaSA was adopted in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, and the second version of SHaSA was adopted in January 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Union Commission has developed several methodological documents for the implementation of the Charter and SHaSA. These methodological documents allow the principles of the charter and the requirements of SHaSA to be integrated into national statistical laws and national strategies for the development of statistics. This state of affairs has enabled the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa.

Several initiatives have accompanied the development of statistics in recent years, which are no less negligible. These are the Committee of Directors General of National Statistical Institutes (CoDG), the African Symposium for the Development of Statistics (SADS), the Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) and the African Program for Statistics. '' Accelerated improvement of the vital statistics system (APAI-CRVS). These various initiatives have made it possible to create forums for discussion and exchange on good practices and the challenges of the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa, for better planning, monitoring and evaluation of national, regional, continental and international development.

In order to intensify the development of statistics in Africa, the date of November 18 has been chosen for the celebration of African Statistics Day. Thus, all the main actors of the African statistical system program each year November 18 as the African Statistics Day. During this day, the main actors of the African statistical system discuss the main themes for the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa. It is also an opportunity for the actors of the African statistical system to take a critical look at the thorny problem of the financing of statistics in Africa. Notwithstanding the fact that the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union has adopted a decision which binds member states of the African Union to allocate at least 0.15% of their national budget for development of Statistics, It is to noted that African states still have a strong and increased dependence on development partners for the financing of national statistical activities.

As every year, the African statistical community will again celebrate November 18, 2020, African Statistics Day. This day will allow actors of the African statistical system to take a very critical look at the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa. This year's theme is “Modernizing National Statistical Systems to Support Sustainable Peace and Development in Africa”, as is the African Union 2020 theme “Silencing the arms: creating conditions conducive to Africa's development.

The African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) which is the African Union's specialized agency for the development and harmonization of statistics on the continent, with its mandate to regularize statistical activity on the continent, wants to mark with a particular cachet the celebration of Statistics Day for the year 2020. STATAFRIC will organize a series of events during this day to discuss the challenges of the implementation of the strategy of harmonization of statistics, the financing of statistical activity on the continent and also the use of statistics in planning and monitoring and evaluation in Africa. One of the problems that the African continent is currently facing is migration.

This 2020 edition of the African Statistics Day will be organized by STATAFRIC in collaboration with the Institute of Statistics of Tunisia, Statistics South Africa, the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda and Statistics Sweden.

The objective of the celebration of the African Statistics Day for the year is to exchange views on the theme of the day and also to discuss the implementation of the strategy of harmonization of statistics in Africa. The specific objectives are to:

• Discuss the issue of financing statistics in Africa, in particular on the implementation of the decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union;
• Discuss the importance of statistics during this COVID 19 pandemic, as well as the role that statistics can play in Africa after the COVID 19 crisis;
• Discuss the impact of COVID 19 on the conduct of population and housing censuses in Africa;
• Discuss the development and harmonization of statistics in Africa, in particular statistics on labor migration, irregular migration, trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants,
• The official launch of the yearbook on trade statistics.

This event will bring together all Directors General of National Statistics Offices of AU Member States or their representatives, representatives of regional economic communities, civil society, the private sector, other stakeholders and representatives of organizations, partners.

The event will be held in English and French and interpretation into all AU languages will be provided and will be broadcasted virtually from 10.00-12.00 (GMT).
Agenda Programme can be found here.

In Africa, trade has become one of the driving forces of integration on the continent. In 2012 the Heads of State and Government of the African Union adopted a decision to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and endorsed the Action Plan on Boosting Intra-Africa Trade. Consequently, the need for reliable and exhaustive statistics on the external trade of the African countries, preferably originating from data provided by the countries themselves, has also grown rapidly.

The main objectives of the AfCFTA are to create a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Customs Union. While this political process is ongoing, the transition situation on the continent is diverse as there are various Regional Economic Communities, customs unions, and currency unions. Producing trade data that serves all purposes is difficult.

Therefore, the African Union Commission in collaboration with Eurostat is pleased to publish under the framework of the Pan African Statistics (PAS) programme, project funded by the European Union, the third edition of the African Trade Statistics Yearbook, a time-series of annual trade data for the period from 2013 to 2019. These data almost fully stem from the countries themselves and thus are authentic.

Harmonized and high-quality trade statistics data become very important to support trade negotiations. There is a need to get comprehensive, detailed and reliable statistics on merchandise trade in African Union. Moreover, detailed Intra and Extra African Union trade statistics are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken by African leaders to boost Intra African trade, which have a high impact for the economic development of the continent.

The E-version of the Yearbook is available here.

• African Charter on Statistics
• Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa (SHaSA)
• 2018 Yearbook on African Trade Statistics
• 2017 Yearbook on African Trade Statistics
• Integrating civil registration and vital statistics systems and legal identity management in the digital era
• Taking a holistic approach to legal identity: good practices from integrating civil registration and vital statistics and identity systems around the world
• Civil registration and vital statistics digitalization and innovation: a perspective from Eastern and Southern Africa
• The civil registration and vital statistics systems improvement framework