The Arab Thematic Conference (13 - 15 June, Amman, Jordan) is part of a series of regional conferences to understand and priorities the recent institutional, organizational and technical developments for the production of official statistics and indicators for the monitoring of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and related regional and national development plans.
The regional approach to these conferences will put focus on practices and challenges common among members of each region. In particular, it will allow the organizers to collect additional information and examples to contribute to the updated Handbook of Statistical Organization, whose purpose is to support the needs of senior managers to adapt and develop their statistical organizations and systems as stressed in th Cape Town Global Action Plan (CTGAP) for Sustainable Development and as described in the final report of the series of conferences on a Transformative Agenda for Official Statistics.
This Thematic Conference for Arab-speaking countries will be organized around three main sessions covering the six strategic areas of the CTGAP and a subset of the 14 substantive chapters of the Handbook as identified by the organizing committee, represented by the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS), UN-ESCWA and UNSD, as highly relevant for the region.
Tuesday, 13 June 2023
08:30 - 09:00
Registration
09:00 - 09:15
Opening and Welcome
ESCWA / UNSD / AITRS / SESRIC
09:15 - 10:00
Session 1: Institutional frameworks, governance and partnership
UNSD: Handbook on Management and Organization of National Statistical Systems
ESCWA: ESCWA Mechanisms and Tools For the Arab Region
10:00 - 11:00
Session 1(a): Institutional Governance and Coordination of National Statistical Systems
Moderator: UNSD
Tunisia: Development of national statistical law and related challenges
AITRS/ESCWA: Strategies to renew statistical laws in the Arab region
Libya: Coordination and collaboration in times of conflicts
SESRIC: Initiatives and activities bolstering modernization of national statistical legislation in the OIC region
Questions and answers
11:00 - 11:30
COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30 - 13:00
Session 1(b): User engagement and partnership with the data community
Moderator: Bahrain
UNSD: Data Stewardship - Governance beyond the National Statistical System
Qatar: Maintaining SDG National Reporting Platform through collaboration and use of the latest applications
Palestine: Strengthening data culture through partnerships - Palestine Data Science initiative
Jordan: Partnerships with the statistical community to reform the NSS
Egypt: Developing the framework and content of the national statistical system and best practices
Questions and answers
13:00 - 14:00
LUNCH BREAK
14:00 - 15:15
Session 1(c): Panel discussion on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics
Moderator: ESCWA Keynote: Mr. Hallgrímur Snorrason (senior consultant UNSD) Panelists: SESRIC / Palestine / Somalia / Oman
15:15 - 15:30
COFFEE/TEA BREAK
15:30 - 17:00
Breakout Session for topics of Session 1
Discussion in small groups with guiding questions prepared in advance
Wednesday, 14 June 2023
09:00 - 09:30
Session 2: Innovation, quality management and capacity development
UNSD: Global Initiatives for accessing innovative data sources, processing and storage
ESCWA: ESCWA Data Ecosystem and Implementation at the National Level
9:30 - 11:00
Session 2(a): Innovative data sources and quality management
Moderator: AITRS
Saudi Arabia: Use of innovative tools and methods for data collection
Tunisia: Innovative solution to overcome the obstacles to data collection
Yemen: Establishment of the Emergency Statistics Unit at the Geographic Information Systems Center (GISC)
Oman: Use of administrative data in implementing population census
Questions and answers
11:00 - 11:30
COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30 - 13:00
Session 2(b): Data sharing and dissemination
Moderator: Syria
Jordan: Jordan's evaluation in the Open Data Index
Qatar: Live update and dissemination of key development indicators on mobile application
Somalia: Data availability dashboard
Iraq: Data exchange for a sustainable and effective national statistical system
Questions and answers
13:00 - 14:00
LUNCH BREAK
14:00 - 15:30
Session 2(c): Enhancing capacity for the transformation and modernization of official statistics