In line with the Marrakech Action
Plan for Statistics and its call for all low-income
countries to have a National Strategy for the
Development of Statistics (NSDS) by 2006, Partnership
in statistics for development in the 21 st century
(PARIS21) and the Statistics Division of the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) co-organised
a series of four sub-regional workshops on NSDS
for Asian countries funded by a UNDP-managed
Japanese trust fund.
The first of these workshops was held for South
Asian countries and took place from 13 to 15
December 2005 in Colombo , Sri Lanka . UNESCAP
and PARIS21 collaborated with the Department
of Census and Statistics of Sri Lanka in the
preparation and organization of the workshop.
The objective of the workshop was to assess
the current status of strategic statistical
planning in the subregion; to identify the successes
and constraints being experienced in implementing
existing plans; and to consider solutions to
those constraints and practical next steps.
It emphasized (1) promoting the use of statistics
in the definition, implementation, and monitoring
of development and poverty reduction policies;
(2) the integration of statistical capacity
development into poverty reduction and other
country strategies; (3) countries taking ownership
of the development of their statistical system;
and (4) potential synergies between the various
national and international initiatives, including
the UNDG/UNDP campaign for the Millennium Development
Goals.
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