1. PARIS21 - League of Arab States
PARIS21 Regional Programme for the Arab States
I will like to discuss with you PARIS21’s proposed regional programme for Arab States.
As mentioned, the goal of all PARIS21 regional programmes is to support the region’s countries in the design and implementation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) by the end of 2006.
PARIS21 - League of Arab States
Cairo, 20 December 2004

2. Features of the Regional Programme
Advocacy at country level
Baseline assessments
Workshops
Resource mobilisation
Building expertise
Reporting
Let’s take a look at the details of the proposed programme for Arab States…
The programme includes:
Advocacy at country level
Baseline assessments
Workshops
Resource mobilisation
Building expertise
Reporting

3. A. Advocacy This activity includes the following types of actions:
identification of the audience and ways to reach them;
adaptation of the message to the audiences;
identification of the “speaker”;
implementation; and
impact evaluation.
This activity includes the following types of actions: (i) identification of the audience and ways to reach them; (ii) adaptation of the message to the audiences; (iii) identification of the “speaker”; (iv) implementation; and (v) impact evaluation.
The various audiences are the following:
Country policy makers. This activity will include presentation of issues related to statistical capacity development, the use of data in policy making, and the need to support statistical development to key policy makers in developing countries such as ministers of finance, sector ministers, etc. The strategy is to use existing regional or international meetings to reach this audience. In some cases we can use country-specific meetings such as Consultative Groups or Roundtable meetings where country policy makers and donors are gathered.
International agencies to coordinate their actions in the framework of NSDS; and
Donors to increase the support to statistics development in their aid programme within the framework of NSDS.
Activities for Arab countries:
Introduce a resolution at the next meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the LAS, to support the design of NSDS in Arab countries. This task will include:
The LAS Statistical Commission adopts a recommendation urging statistical offices to design and implement an NSDS.
LAS Director of Statistics and Information Data Base sends the recommendation to the LAS Economic and Social Council for endorsement (February 2005).
LAS Economic and Social Council endorses the resolution (March 2005).
Disseminate the resolution to donors to mobilise support for the design, finalisation, and implementation of NSDS in Arab countries.
Introduce a similar resolution to other regional and international bodies such as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), boards of regional development banks and funds, UNESCWA, UNECA, UN regional specialised agencies, etc.
Finalise, disseminate, and use the PARIS21 advocacy video for the Arab Region.

4. B. Baseline Assessment
Assessment of the current situation of countries of the region regarding their design and implementation of an NSDS.
The LAS Bureau of Statistics has been carrying out a survey of the 22 countries of the region. The report will include an analysis of country strategies that will highlight both positive and negative points, and compare national strategies in order to identify similarities and differences.
This step is an assessment of the current situation of the region’s countries regarding their design and implementation of an NSDS. The Bureau of Statistics of LAS has been carrying out a survey of the 22 countries of the region. It will include an analysis of country strategies that will highlight both positive and negative points, and compare national strategies in order to identify similarities and differences.
Activities for Arab countries:
PARIS21 will produce an Assessment Report (in English and Arabic) on the status of statistical systems in the Arab countries based on existing documents, and on the LAS Assessment Report. The documents collected will be incorporated into the NSDS Knowledge Base. The findings of the report will be discussed and a regional programme agreed based on national programmes. The report will be scheduled for discussion as part of the agenda of a proposed meeting of heads of statistical offices.

5. C. Workshops
Organise regional workshops to promote, initiate, share experiences, and report on NSDS development and implementation.
Launch the design of NSDS at country level, and agree on a timeframe, terms of reference, and financial needs for countries of the region. This topic would be part of the agenda of a proposed meeting of NSO heads.
The objective of PARIS21 regional workshops is to support countries at critical stages of NSDS design. Regional workshops are an efficient way to reach countries, to promote cross fertilization, to improve donors’ collaboration, and to build a community of knowledge. Regional workshops are intended to promote, initiate, train, follow up, share experiences, and report on NSDS design. The agenda of specific meetings will depend on the countries status and needs as defined from the baseline assessment, and various consultations with partners. It is likely that there will be the following workshops at 6 to 8 month of intervals:
NSDS launching workshop aimed to initiate and present NSDS approach based on the Guidelines. It is aimed at NSO heads and key policy makers and multilateral/regional institutions. The outputs are the draft road maps for NSDS, and financing arrangements to support countries for the NSDS design. A good example is the Panama meeting for Central America countries.
Mid-term workshop aimed to share experiences, issues and success at the time of vision and strategic planning phases. It is likely that countries of the region won’t be at the same stage. It is aimed at the NSDS design team and donors.
NSDS finalization workshop aimed to share experiences before the finalization of countries’ NSDS papers. It is aimed at a larger audience including NSDS design teams, policy makers, donors involved in particular countries who are likely to support the implementation of NSDS.
Between meetings PARIS21 would provide follow up of the NSDS design process with a strong involvement of partners.

6. D. Resource Mobilisation
Several donors are providing support to Arab States in the field of statistical capacity building. The first step will be to compile information about this support and to organise a mechanism to strengthen co-ordination and collaboration.
Several donors are providing support to Arab States in the field of statistical capacity building. The first step will be to compile information about this support and to organise a mechanism to strengthen coordination and collaboration.
Activities for Arab countries:
PARIS21 Secretariat proposes to put together a summary of statistical assistance programmes carried out by bilateral, regional, and multilateral development agencies in the Arab region (by early 2005).
A coordination process should be set up among donors to avoid duplications, and to harmonise and increase effectiveness of their support to statistical activities at the country level.
A donors meeting should be organised to review current assistance programmes and improve programme responsiveness towards national statistical development needs (mid-2005).
Along these lines, I am happy to announce that EFTA (European Free Trade Association) has just recently agreed to allocate $100,000 to finance the PARIS21 regional programme for the Arab States. So we are now in a much better position financially to provide assistance to the region.

7. E. Building Expertise Development of NSDS materials
Develop a roster of experienced consultants (Arabic speaking).
Organise peer review with emphasis on south–south collaboration, and advisory body.
Development of NSDS materials (Thanks to the Department of Statistics of Jordan and several reviewers in the region, these documents have already been translated. We ask that all countries in the region provide comments on these documents to feed into the 2005 version.)
Develop a roster of experienced consultants (Arabic speaking).
Organise peer review with emphasis on south–south collaboration, and advisory body.

8. F. Reporting Countries are invited to :
produce reports on the progress and issues of their NSDS design and implementation.
to share good practices, examples and documents produced during the design (and later on of the implementation) of NSDSs.
Reporting on progress and issues of NSDS design and implementation is part of the national strategy, and countries will be invited to produce such reports. They will be used to report on the progress and issues at regional level, on a yearly basis. Starting with baseline information, they will give an overall assessment of the achievements towards NSDS objectives. In addition countries will be asked to share good practices, examples and documents produced during the design (and later on of the implementation) of NSDSs. They will feed into the NSDS knowledge base.

9. Conclusions Agreement on:
The need for all LAS countries to design and implement an NSDS
The content of the proposed regional programme for Arab States
The date and location of NSDS regional workshops
PARIS21 asks that the delegations participating in today’s meeting agree to the drafting of a resolution recommending that all countries design and implement an NSDS to be presented to the Economic Council.
We also ask for comments and/or approval of the proposed regional programme just presented.
If the above are agreeable, we also ask that dates and locations be tentatively agreed for future regional workshops for the NSDS launching, mid-term review and finalisation phases.
Thank you.