COMESA has developed a new Regional Strategy for Development of Statistics (RSDS) for the period 2021 – 2025, which is expected to run concurrently with the COMESA Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP) 2021 – 2025.
The RSDS was consolidated by experts from National Statistics Offices (NSOs) who consulted widely with stakeholders to come up with a comprehensive document. The draft RSDS was presented to the 12th Meeting of the COMESA Committee on Statistical Matters (CCSM) on Thursday 20 May 2021 for consideration and approval.
The next step is to present the RSDS to the COMESA Council of Ministers Meeting set for mid this year which is expected to adopt it for implementation. The workplan and budget for implementation of the Strategy have also been finalized.
COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe described the new RSDS as a statistical response to the COMESA regional integration policy agenda.
“This revised RSDS is in line with the COMESA’s Treaty expectations for the role that statistics is to play in the common market,” she said during the official opening of the virtual meeting.
She added that on its part, COMESA Secretariat will exert efforts towards mobilization of resources for implementation of the regional statistical agenda. Recently, the COMESA Secretariat signed a protocol of agreement with the African Development Bank (AfDB) as the executing agency for the Statistical Capacity Building (SCB) programme.
Additionally, the Secretariat is in the final stages of implementing the European Union supported institutional capacity building programme, which will support among others, statistical capacity.
The one-day meeting was attended by Directors of National Statistics Offices, representatives of Central Banks, sector ministries, representatives of the EU, the European Statistical office (EUROSTAT), PARIS21, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission, the International Labour Organization, Statistics Norway and Statistics Sweden.