Nouakchott (Mauritania), 09-11 December 2017: The Eleventh Annual Conference Session of the African Union Committee of Directors General (CoDGs) of the National Statistics Offices was held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, from 09th to 11thDecember 2017 following the successful completion of the 4th Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics also held in Mauritania the week prior. As stated by the Commissioner of Economic Affairs of the African Union Commission in his opening remarks “This is a great week for the development of African Statistics” and indeed it was.

Addressing the experts at the opening ceremony, Mr. Mohamed Ould Ahmed Aida, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mauritania welcomed participants in Mauritania and noted that the main objective of this meeting would be amongst other topics, to discuss challenges of Statistics in Africa, implementation of the Charter of Statistics, operationalization of the Pan African Statistics Institute in Yamoussoukro (PANSTAT) and the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) in Tunis; and assess the development of Agenda 2063 through the use of Statistical indicators..

This Eleventh edition of the CoDG, which was organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), was an opportunity for African Union Commission representatives, Director Generals of National Institutes of African Statistic Offices, observers, partners and others in attendance to discuss challenges, recommendations and ways forward in the development of Statistics Africa. Statistics is a very important tool to reinforce socio-economic growth in Africa and key data and information coming out of this meeting will assist in evolving Statistics in African continent. Africa has come from quite far in their endeavors to Harmonize Statistics across the continent. During the last few years, we can see a significant improvement towards this goal through the development of Statistics Strategies and their implementation across the continent. A strong call is being made to Member States to prioritize Statistics in their National Development Strategies and acknowledge the need to allocate additional funding for National Statistics Programmes. In addition, it was noted that the different Pan African Institutions should take the necessary steps and take the lead in speaking in ‘One Voice for Africa’. Efforts to develop an African Common position is being developed and countries should share their respective experiences in order to come up with a Common African position.

Among the key recommendations proposed, the meeting emphasized on the need for Pan-African Organizations to advocate for the implementation of the ministerial decision to allocate 0.15% of the national budget to statistics and call upon Member State countries to ensure implementation of the decision; AUC in collaboration with AfDB and UNECA to develop a monitoring framework at continental level to monitor Agenda 2063, to domesticate the indicators and to provide a technical assistance to countries to develop the baseline for the Agenda 2063/Agenda 2030.

Following conclusions and final recommendations, it was convened by the meeting that the Republic of Sudan will host the 12th Session of the CoDGs in 2018.

African Union Commission

Djeinaba Kane | Editorial Officer | African Union Commission I E-mail: KaneD@africa-union.org
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@african-union.org I Website: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia