1. A FRICA S YMPOSIUM ON S TATISTICAL D EVELOPMENT 2016-2020 Katalin Bokor Economic Statistics and National Accounts Section African Centre for Statistics, ECA AGNA Meeting Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 20-22 April 2016

2. Context Africa Symposium on Statistical Development (ASSD) Discussion forum for the various actors in the African statistical system Since 2011 ASSDs have focused on the development of civil registration and vital statistics 11 th ASSD: held back to back with the African Conference on a Transformative Agenda for Official Statistics as well as the StatCom- Africa and CoDGs meetings, 23-25 November 2015, Libreville, Gabon Theme for the next 5 years (2016-2020): economic statistics

3. Proposed topics Points for consideration Combining topics: Some of the topics may be combined depending on the depth or richness required. The list is not exhaustive and may need to be filtered based on the experiences and priorities of countries. Setting a clear goal: It may be necessary to ascribe the design of this 5 year round of ASSD in the logic of getting things from the current situation to goal attainment – where we want economic statistics in Africa to be. Accordingly, the themes would have to be built on ongoing processes while being forward looking and geared towards achieving the goal. Building topics on each other: The formulation of the themes follow that structural pattern, leading to the desired transformation of the production, dissemination and application of a broad, if not comprehensive, set of economic statistics.

4. Proposed topics Thematic topic 1 - 2016 Adoption and application of international statistical standards for harmonization of economic statistics in Africa Statistical harmonization in Africa: classifications, tools, and methods Implementation of the 2008 SNA Classifications

5. Proposed topics Thematic topic 2 - 2017 Strengthening basic economic statistics for the compilation of national accounts Integrated economic statistics for national accounts The use of Value Added Tax (VAT) for improving national accounts in Africa Improving household income, consumption, and expenditure data for better national accounts Methods and processes to improve the collection and processing of basic economic statistics Basic data sources for economic statistics and nationals accounts Production and price indices Price statistics (harmonized CPI and PPI etc.) Agriculture statistics Administrative data, including business registers Informal sector estimates Small area statistics Government Finance Statistics Balance of Payments Trade statistics

6. Proposed topics Thematic topic 3 - 2018 Optimizing and rationalizing the production process of national accounts and economic statistics National accounts and economic statistics in Africa, current state of production, use, and way forward Institutional and technical strengthening for sustainable production of economic statistics Methods to better account for the informal sector in national accounts Comprehensively utilizing administrative data in national accounts

7. Proposed topics Thematic topic 4 - 2019 Timely dissemination and accessibility of economic statistics for policy formulation and decision-making Harmonization of the dissemination process of economic statistics in Africa Dissemination of economic statistics, specifically ICP results Accessibility of economic statistics to users for policy formulation and decision making

8. Proposed topics Thematic topic 5 - 2020 Application of economic statistics and national accounts in support of sustainable development Better national accounts statistics for Agenda 2063 Improving national accounts statistics for monitoring Africa's progress, in line with Agenda 2063 and SDGs Implementation of the 2008 SNA and harmonization of time series Use of economic statistics in economic governance Agenda 2063, SDGs and the priority development areas of integrated economic statistics in African countries How economic statistics can be used for monitoring SDGs? Beyond GDP – satellite accounts: Environmental-Economic Accounts and Social Accounting Matrix Development of satellite accounts: tourism, informal, health, education, environment, etc.

9. Points for discussion Shall the topics be linked and build on each other, or shall they be independent? Do you agree with the topics? How to come up with a program and agenda? Who should make presentations during the next ASSD? Any other business

10. Thank you for your attention African Centre for Statistics Website: http://www.uneca.org/acshttp://www.uneca.org/acs Twitter: @ECAStats@ECAStats