1ST PARIS21 WORKSHOP FOR THE ANDEAN COMMUNITY

SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATISTICS TO SUPPORT POLICIES IN THE

FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 25th –27th February, 2002

TERMS OF REFERENCE

OVERVIEW

Considering the Secretariat General of the Andean Community intention to design an Integrated Social Development Plan for confronting prevailing issues of poverty, exclusion and social inequalities in the Andean Community, as assigned by the Presidential Directives of the Carabobo Act of June 2001, this workshop will pursue the following objectives:

OBJECTIVES

  1. To improve the dialogue between policy decision-makers, national producers of statistics, international organizations, researchers, information users, media and civil society, on the importance of reliable economic and social statistics as a key element in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction strategies.
  1. To benefit from the experience of other countries of the region as well as of international experts by exploring best practices for producing and using required economic and social statistics.
  2. To present to international organizations and bilateral donors the needs of national statistical systems for strengthening their capacities to generate relevant data for supporting poverty reduction strategies.
  3. To raise awareness among official responsible of public finance and co-operation agencies on the importance of allocating resources to ensure sustainability of national statistical systems, as main instrument to measure the impact of poverty reduction policies.
  4. To introduce the Andean Community Statistical Program as part of the Andean Community Integrated Plan for Social Development.

EXPECTED RESULTS

  1. Reach an agreement between governments, international organizations, users and producers of statistics on ways to strengthening national statistical capacities aiming at generating indicators needed for supporting national poverty reduction strategies, based on principles of professional standards, transparency integrity, comparability and sustainability.
  1. Reach an agreement between governments, international organizations, users and producers of statistics on the need to integrate economic and social statistics in the design, monitoring and evaluation process of poverty reduction policies, by improving the production sequence from data collection, to processing, analyzing and dissemination.
  2. Reach an agreement between member countries of the Andean Community to implement the Andean Community Statistical Program.

PARTICIPANTS

  1. Delegations from the five countries of the Andean Community are composed of:
  • Minister responsible for the social sector to be discussed, joined when possible by the Minister responsible for the economy and finance;
  • Head of national statistical offices;
  • Head of Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of social sector to be discussed, joined when possible by particular official for this sector;
  • Representative of research center involved in using statistics (University, institute or research center);
  • Representative of media professionals involved in communication with public opinion.
  1. Participants from International and regional organizations include:
  • Representatives from central and regional offices of multilateral organizations (European Union, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations, World Bank, and others);
  • Representatives from central and regional offices of bilateral organizations (France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and others);
  • Representatives from regional organizations (Andean Community, CARICOM, MCCA, MERCOSUR, UN ECLAC and SIECA).
  1. Other participants:
  • Representatives from regional statistical offices (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Uruguay);
  • Representatives from Paris21 secretariat;
  • World-renowned experts.

Funding and Coordination

Travel, accommodation and subsistence will be provided for a limited number of participants by the organizers of the event. For further details regarding the organization of the meeting, please contact Mr. Fernado Aramayo: tel: (591-7) 207 9472, e-mail: , or Ms. Sandra Migdal (PARIS21 secretariat): tel: (33-1) 4524 1622, e-mail: