01 September 2020 – PHILIPPINES. The Philippines, through the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), actively participated in the 7th Session of the Committee on Statistics of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). The Philippines, represented by Undersecretary Dennis S. Mapa, Ph.D., was elected into the Bureau of the Committee as a Member and Rapporteur until 2022. The virtual session was held from 26 to 28 August 2020 from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Philippine Standard Time via KUDO, a Language-as-a-Service platform.
The committee session was attended by around 200 representatives from 37 member countries, 1 associate member country, various international and regional organizations, and United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, among others.
The agenda of the virtual session covered the solicitation of whole-of-government support for official statistics in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, advancement of official statistics for the Sustainable Development Goals, and two seminars on priority issues.
Usec. Mapa, in behalf of the Philippines, delivered the interventions on the following agenda items: a) Monitoring progress in line with the document entitled “Advancing official statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: a collective vision and framework for action by the Asia-Pacific statistical community” and the Declaration on Navigating Policy with Data to Leave No One Behind, b) Accounting for integrated statistics and analysis, and c) Progress made in support of the collective vision and framework for action by groups responsible for regional initiatives of the Committee on Statistics by the secretariat.
Usec. Mapa, as the head of the PSA, was also invited as a discussant for the seminar on Transforming human resource management to build statistical institutions in Asia-Pacific for the future. He underscored that crafting human resource capacity building programs, individual career development, and succession planning are vital for organizational leadership and stability.
In the latter part of the virtual session, Usec. Mapa, as the newly elected Rapporteur, led the body into the review and adoption of the report. Executive Director Gogita Todradze of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, the Chair of the seventh session, and the Secretariat, facilitated discussion and revisions to the draft report. The said report will consequently be submitted to the ESCAP.
The Committee will move forward towards the fulfillment of its commitments and achieving targets for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The 8th Session of the Committee on Statistics will be held in 2022.
For PSA updates, visit www.psa.gov.ph for more information.
- International Cooperation Unit, Office of the National Statistician