Description: UNSD participated in the First Global Workshop for the 2024 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) organized by the DESA and hosted by ECA with the support of the European Union. The workshop facilitated a practical exchange of experiences and knowledge among countries, as well as explored specific issues and challenges related to the VNR preparations. To this end, it engaged officials from finance ministries, statistical offices, planning and sectoral and other ministries and institutions engaged in the VNR at national level. UNSD led the data session in exploring how statistics and data are critical for reviewing progress towards the SDGs. The session explored challenges in the availability and analysis of statistics in the preparation of their VNR and at the same time, the key opportunity to build on countries’ statistical capacities and understand countries’ progress towards the SDGs. The session encouraged countries in developing a data and statistics roadmap for the VNR process following the Practical Guide for Evidence-based VNRs developed by UNSD, based on the national SDG monitoring framework and exploring additional opportunities to fill data gaps. It also provided lessons learned from countries who have presented their VNR in the previous years. In addition, Colombia and Mauritius presented their country experience followed by UNECA highlighting the regional support mechanism. The workshop attracted participation from thirty-four countries slated to present their VNRs in 2024. The event commenced with opening remarks by H.E. Paula Narváez, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations in New York and President of ECOSOC. Mr. Antonio Pedro, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), also extended welcome remarks.
Description: This was first in a series of regional expert consultations and meetings to enhance national geospatial information management arrangements and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. It was convened from 23-28 November 2023 on ECA premises with the support of the Geospatial Information Management Section (GiMS) in ECA. The consultation engaged geospatial leaders from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and South Africa. Staff from ECA and UNSD, including the Director of the recently established United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Centre (UN-GGKIC) in Deqing (China) as well as invited resource persons participated. The group energetically interacted providing guidance and reviews on their national efforts, challenges, and accomplishments towards implementation of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (UN-IGIF) in African countries, particularly through UN-IGIF Country-level Action Plans. This included sharing challenges and accomplishments in engaging and working with colleagues across government, including national statistical offices, to integrate geospatial information, statistics, and other relevant data to produce ‘geospatially disaggregated’ indicators for visualizing and ‘story telling’national development priorities and the SDGs. In this regard, the group also provided valuable contributions to improve the recommended approach and related guides, resource materials and tools developed to support national efforts towards implementing the SDGs with the UN-IGIF. This highly interactive peer-to-peer learning approach benefited from the selfless sharing of real frustrations, accomplishments, joys, and pains to improve the visibility and impact of national geospatial programs and entities, and their contribution to national development. In this process, the group highlighted the importance of leadership –including personal commitment and passion – and strategies that can be employed to grow geospatial leadership in organizations and across government. A key element for success is having good governance structures and institutional arrangements in place, including government mandates and resources to ensure the sustainability of the UNIGIF. They also highlighted the importance of effective communication, and engagement, not only within their organizations, but also across government and amongst partners and stakeholders. The need to provide key messages and build multi-agency collaboration was referenced several times throughout the week. The geospatial leaders from Africa gratefully acknowledged the valuable support they are receiving from UNSD and the SDG Data Alliance in their journey of learning and discovering, allowing them to improve their national geospatial information management arrangements, and supporting the achievements of national development priorities and the SDGs. They confirmed the efficacy of the United Nations recommended ‘self-pace, learn and discover’ approach to develop their UN-IGIF Country-level Action Plans and the importance of demonstrating impacts through the use of enabling geospatial technologies including SDG Data Hubs. However, whilst appreciating the support and assistance thus far, the group requested further support be made available to the many other countries in their continent that are willing and ready to enhance their national geospatial information management capabilities and capacities. Noting that the overarching goal of the UN-GGKIC is to work towards the ambitions of implementation of the UN-IGIF, and to provide technical assistance and capacity building for national SDG monitoring and reporting and allowing greater availability and visibility of country data at sub-national, national, regional and global levels, it was agreed that the UN-GGKIC will be a key ‘implementation mechanism’ of the UN-IGIF in the years ahead, and is also well placed to support the ongoing work of the SDG Data Alliance. In discussions, the group of also requested that a geospatial leadership and executive training program could be established within the program of the UN-GGKIC as a tangible outcome to decision 13/101(h), where the Committee of Experts, at its thirteenth session, recognized the “efforts of developing countries to enhance and support the leadership roles within national geospatial and mapping agencies to ensure that effective geospatial information management contributes to increased geospatial capacities and capabilities, and shared knowledge for geospatial enablement across and within Member States”.
Description: The Workshop will train participants from national statistical offices on quality assurance and its implementation throughout the national statistical system and support the development of additional guidelines on quality assurance. The Workshop will provide an overview of the contents of the Manual and the UN National Quality Assurance Framework, review and discuss the implementation of quality assurance in participating countries and discuss quality assurance in the case when new and administrative data sources are being used. The sharing of experiences will also support the development of further implementation guidance.
Description: Body In 2018, UNECA and UNCTAD, with the cooperation of UNODC, inaugurated a new Development Account project called “Defining, estimating and disseminating statistics on illicit financial flows in Africa”. The project aimed at consolidating existing and testing new methodological guidelines for the measurement of Indicator 16.4.1 “Total value of inward and outward illicit financial flows (IFFs)”, as well as to build and strengthen statistical capacity by providing technical assistance and guidance to pilot countries for the measurement of such indicator. As a result, an UNCTAD/UNODC Conceptual Framework for the Statistical Measurement of Illicit Financial Flows was published in October 2020, and in June 2021, UNCTAD published Methodological Guidelines to Measure Tax and Commercial IFFs for pilot testing. Large-scale pilot testing has been ongoing in 2021-2022 of the UNCTAD Guidelines in eleven African countries: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia. A hybrid Closing Conference of the project is being organized to discuss the implementation of activities related to the measurement of tax and commercial IFFs in the eleven African countries. Each national representative will present the process; results; lessons learned and next steps of their countries’ involvement in the measurement of IFFs. Discussions will also focus on common grounds and initiatives of other stakeholders in curbing IFFs in Africa, and on the next steps for policy actions.
