ECECOWAS COMMISSION Promoting Labour Mobility through Regional Cooperation. The case of ECOWAS Workshop on Strengthening the collection and use of international migration data for development, Addis, November 18-22 2014,
CONTENT Introduction Ecowas Statistical System (ESS) Activities of Research and Statistics Directorate (RSD) Situation of Statistics in the Member States (MS) Regional Statistical Program (RSP) Objective of RSP Challenges facing the RSP Linkage
Introduction The Treaty establishing ECOWAS was signed May 28, 1975 and revised in 1993 including the strategies for the implementation of its goals as well as the creation of a common market. Also the Revised Treaty include the creation of an economic union through the adoption of common policies for economic, financial, social and cultural affairs and the creation of a monetary union.
Introduction Cont. To fulfill the mission assigned by the Treaty, ECOWAS has adopted Vision 2020, which aims to "create a borderless, peaceful, prosperous and cohesive region, build on good governance and where people can have the capacity to access and harness its enormous resources through creation of opportunities for sustainable development and environmental preservation. In December 1996, the ECOWAS Commission adopted a policy to strengthen the statistical capacity of national and regional Statistical system.
Introduction Cont In order to implement the regional agenda of economic, social and monetary integration programs stats info is required. The management of these programs and policies necessites reliable and comparable statistics. In order to adequately meet the needs of statistical data required by the integration processes RSP has to be developed. Within the framework of this new program and the previous ones the Commission has implemented statistical harmonization projects in priority areas as well as Statistical Capacity Building (SCB) in Member States.
Ecowas Statistical System (ESS) Research and Statistics Directorate (RSD) National statistics Offices (NSO) Line Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
Activities of RSD The activities of the Research and Statistics Department is aimed at facilitating the: - formulation, - coordination, - Cooperation - implementation and - evaluation of the regional programmes It includes harmonizing statistical standards and methods To produce, manage and disseminate relevant data and building statistical capacity in the member states and at regional level.
Situation of Statistics in the Member States (MS) The study of the state of statistics in the Member States reveals an overall positive progress in the production of statistics in terms of quality and coverage. The evaluation showed wide disparities in the level of the development of National Statistical Systems In some cases important sectors are not adequately covered and sometimes not covered at all by official statistics.
Regional Statistical Program (RSP) The new RSP programme has sixteen (16) priority axes that must be implemented together towards the attainment of the regional objectives: NATIONAL ACCOUNT CONSUMER PRICE INDICES BALANCE OF PAYMENT PUBLIC FINANCE STATISTICS EDUCATION STATISTICS HEALTH STATISTICS AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
Regional Statistical Program (RSP) Cont ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS ENERGY STATISTICS GENDER STATISTICS INFRASTRUCTURE STATISTICS DISSEMINATION OF STATISTICAL DATA STATISTICS FOR MONITORING HOUSEHOLD LIVING CONDITIONS AND POVERTY CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS and STATISTICAL COORDINATION, COOPERATION AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Objective of RSP The main objective of the programme is for each member state to meet the production of minimal statistics necessary for decision making and for monitoring the Regional Macroeconomic Convergence Programme, the regional integration and development policies strengthen the capacity of statistical agencies of the Member States and to promote necessary reforms; improve production of statistics; produce harmonized statistics in the region;
Objective of RSP Cont encourage the use of statistics for policies based on reliable data; reinforce statistical exchanges in order to serve as a basis for coordinated intervention from development partners; promote the basic principles of official statistics. promote monitoring of statistics activities in the region for review and redesign of programme in line with the new regional priorities and policies; promote better coordination of statistical activities in the region; promote regional integration
linkage GENDER STATISTICS DISSEMINATION OF STATISTICAL DATA STATISTICS FOR MONITORING HOUSEHOLD LIVING CONDITIONS AND POVERTY CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS ECOWAS DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
Challenges facing the RSP Financial resource which is a crucial input for provision of adequate and optimum quality statistics is not readily available. The ever increasing cost of statistical information and multiple competing priorities in resources in member countries makes financial resources insufficient to make substantial improvements in access and quality of statistics.
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