Environment statistics workshop aims to boost data reliability

Addis Ababa, 18 July 2007 - A weeklong workshop on environment statistics in Africa opened here on 16 July aimed at improving the quality of data in this domain.

The meeting is jointly organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the UN Statistics Division (UNSD) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

In his opening remarks, Dimitri Sanga on behalf of the director of ECA's African Centre for Statistics (ACS), Ben Kiregyera, noted the need for a comprehensive body of environment statistics to monitor the crucial link between the environment and development.

Acknowledging the “inadequacies” of statistics on the continent, he said the workshop was aimed at mapping out appropriate mechanisms and indicators for monitoring and evaluating various conventions on the environment.

UNEP's speech, read by Christopher Ambala, described the workshop as another milestone in boosting accessibility to more reliable environmental data on the continent, a sentiment echoed by the UNSD representative Eszter Horvath. She stressed that sound policy and decision-making was impossible without accessible and reliable information on the environment. The objective of the workshop, she added, was to initiate a regional strategy for the development of environment statistics.

Various presentations delivered on the first day of the meeting underlined global and continental environmental challenges, as well as some of the environmental indicators already available, and initiatives such as the Africa Environment Information Network (AEIN) to make reliable data more accessible.

Participants also noted that the purpose of the workshop was to take into account the practices of various countries, as well as modifications to development goals when setting indicators for sustainable development.

The workshop, which continues until 20 July, is expected to come up with recommendations aimed at strengthening coordination at various levels, assisting countries in developing data exchange mechanisms, building capacity and improving advocacy, and producing a core set of African environment indicators in line with international concepts, standards and methodology that respond to national, regional and international requirements.