Twenty-ninth session
10-14 February 1997
Item 15 of the provisional agenda*
1. At its twenty-eighth session (New York, 27 February-3 March 1995), the Statistical Commission requested the United Nations Statistics Division to submit a report on the plans of international organizations in the field of statistics.1 The United Nations Statistics Division received information on existing plans for the various relevant plan periods of the international organizations and these are contained in the summaries entitled "Plans of international organizations in statistics, 1997-2000" and "Programmes of international statistical work in the ECE region, 1996/1997 and 1997/1998: an integrated presentation" (CES/1996/R.30) which are before the Commission as background documents. Also, relevant information is contained in the draft programme of work of the United Nations Statistics Division for the biennium 1998-1999 (E/CN.3/1997/CRP.1).
2. The summaries are of necessity selective in coverage, and only new activities and activities that have been modified significantly are presented. Routine ongoing activities, such as the issuance of recurrent publications and other activities that have not changed since the twenty-eighth session of the Commission, are in general not covered.
3. The following organizations/agencies have been included in the report: the Statistics Division of the United Nations Secretariat; the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE); the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA); the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA); the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat); the International Labour Organization (ILO); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the World Health Organization (WHO); the World Bank; the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the Universal Postal Union (UPU); the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP); the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW); the World Trade Organization; the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat); the Inter-State Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States; and the International Statistical Institute (ISI).
4. The Statistical Commission may wish:
(a) To comment on the future plans of the international organizations/agencies in various subject areas;
(b) To provide additional guidance on such aspects of the coverage and focus of the report as might be preferred in the future so that the report could better meet the needs of the Commission.
1 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 1995, Supplement No. 8 (E/1995/28), para. 87 (c).