By Amin Kef Sesay
Sierra Leone is currently participating in the 51st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission which started on the 3rd and will end on the 6th March 2020 in New York. Sierra Leone which is sitting on the prestigious UN Statistical Commission for the first time ever is represented by its Statistician General,Prof Osman Sankoh(Mallam O), and Director Of The National Statistical System, Francis Tommy.
The 51st session of the UN Statistical Commission will discuss among many others, reports by the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG indicators(IAEG-SDG),the High Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as a report of the Friends of the Chair group on the future of Economic Statistics, and a report by the Bureau on a more coordinated and coherent structure and functions of groups operating under the auspices of the Statistical Commission.
As in past years, a special seminar was organized on the 28th February which provided an opportunity to showcase innovative approaches related to household surveys that are adopted and experimented by National Statistical Offices, International Organizations and the Research Community in order to match the data challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). On Monday 2nd March 2020,a high level forum focusing on the concept of data stewardship and the changing role of National Statistical Offices and Chief Statisticians was also organized and in both of these sessions, Stats SL was proficiently represented and made meaningful contributions.
“We are happy with the strides we have taken to revive and turn Stats SL into one of the beacons of Central Statistics Offices in Africa”, Statistician General, Professor Osman Sankoh mused. “We know that we still have some way to go but we are happy as a leadership with the tremendous efforts we have made in converting the institution into a dependable one that will be enviable for producing credible data and we are here to showcase Sierra Leone and its statistical competencies to the whole world” he concluded
Sierra Leone’s tenure, its first on the UN Statistical system, will run for 3 years (2020-2023) and is only one of 8 African countries globally sitting on the commission.
Sierra Leone’s sitting on the commission will open unexplored doors for the use Official Statistics not only in Sierra Leone but in the entire African continent. It is also hoped that this tenure will position Stats SL into a winner Central Statistical Office that will be first-rate in the collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of accurate, clear, relevant, timely and high quality statistical information on social, health, demographic, economic and financial activities to serve the needs of users whilst also guiding government and the general public to make informed decisions.
