Qatar will participate in the 47th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSD), to be held at the UN headquarters in New York from tomorrow until March 11.
The Qatari delegation will be headed by HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh  Mohamed Salem al-Nabit.
Qatar’s participation in this session is of special importance, being elected last year as representative of the Asian Group, which will enable it to obtain membership of the United Nations Statistical Commission for the 2016-2019 period, according to a statement from the Ministry of Development Planning and
Statistics.
This membership will enable Qatar to involve in the decision-making process related to the measurement of economic, social and environmental phenomena in the Arab region, the update of statistical systems and methodologies, the formulation of effective statistical policies that take into account national and international needs related to the sustainable development process, as well as in assisting Arab countries to benefit from the technical support provided by the UN and its organisations,
the statement notes.
This session’s agenda covers a number of important issues related to the role of statistical data in the development process, the development of methodologies and data sources, the methods of publishing statistical data and making them available to users in a timely manner, including the adoption of the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, whose goals and objectives have been adopted by world leaders in September 2015.
The session will also discuss the Transformative Agenda for Official Statistics in order to enable countries to develop and update the statistical process as a prelude to support the agenda of the aforesaid development.
In addition, the agenda covers significant topics pertaining to the national accounts system, price statistics, environmental-economic accounting, international statistical classifications, international trade statistics, climate statistics, disability statistics, information and communications technology statistics, and big data for official statistics, in
addition to other topics.
On the sidelines of the session, HE Dr al-Nabit is to meet a number of officials from UN organisations, the World Bank, Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, as well as regional and Arab organisations, the
statement adds.
He will also meet representatives of the developed countries in order to consult on the latest developments on updating statistical process, exchange of experiences and learning from successful lessons.
In the Qatari mission office, he will meet the manager of the UN Transformative Agenda for Official Statistics Project to discuss the request submitted by the UN Statistics Division to Qatar to join the project, considering it a leading country in this area.