ESCWA provides support and capacity-building for national systems in official statistics and ensures coordination between various actors involved in statistical activities in the region.
Demand for data and statistics is growing exponentially. Data and statistics are the evidence required by policymakers to devise policies related to the 2030 Agenda and the wide array of fields it covers. They are needed within tight deadlines, in more detailed thematic and geographic breakdown, and with high relevance and quality.
ESCWA support is targeted towards carrying out population and housing censuses and household surveys, implementing national accounts, developing sectoral economic statistics, producing statistics on natural resources, and generating data directly linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. Special assistance in using advanced technologies for census enumeration is offered to countries with limited expertise and deteriorated infrastructure, especially those in conflict. ESCWA also supports South-South cooperation and accelerates the exchange of experience and lessons learned on the use of modern information, communication and geospatial technologies currently being adopted throughout the region.
ESCWA also undertakes pilot projects towards the use of alternate data sources, such as big data, web-scraping or scanner data for prices, and linking geospatial and statistical information. It works closely with member States on speeding up utilization of electronic means of data collection directly from respondents or from administrative registers and records.
Around 1 million data points representing approximately 100 thousand time series structured into 52 data cubes currently populate the ESCWA Data Portal, which will be gradually converted into a regional data hub.
Ankara, Türkiye