On 11 May 2023, the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus hosted a meeting of Inna Medvedeva, Chairperson of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, with Gwi-Yeop Son, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia of the United Nations Development Coordination Office. This is the first official visit of Ms Son to the Belstat. During the visit, she was accompanied by Aijan Akdeniz Bayram, Regional Adviser for Peace and Development in Europe and Central Asia of the UN Development Coordination Office, Ioanna Kazana-Vishnevetsky, UN Resident Coordinator in the Republic of Belarus, Samuel Shin, Head of the UN Resident Coordinator Office in the Republic of Belarus and Maxim Gubsky, Development Coordination Officer, Economist of the UN Resident Coordinator Office in the Republic of Belarus.
During the meeting Inna Medvedeva noted the high efficiency of cooperation between Belstat and UN agencies and expressed her gratitude for the assistance provided in the implementation of the comprehensive survey on the situation of disabled people, the sixth round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey on the Situation of Children and Women (MICS), the development of a universal web-portal of statistical data on children, the web portal "Gender Statistics", the National Platform for reporting on SDG indicators.
The Chairperson of Belstat drew attention to the importance of working with custodial agencies to validate national data, referring to the UN General Assembly Resolution, which calls on international organisations to use data produced by national statistical systems while conducting global reviews. Belstat actively works with custodial agencies to present data on the Republic of Belarus and ensure that the national methodology complies with the established international standards. Inna Medvedeva gave examples of effective cooperation of the National Statistics Committee with the WHO on alcohol consumption per capita and with FAO on calculation of the food loss index.
During the discussions, Inna Medvedeva and Gwi-Yeop Son paid special attention to the National SDG Reporting Platform developed with the support of UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA, which is an example of best practices among the CIS countries, emphasizing its relevance and value for monitoring progress towards the SDG and interacting with custodial agencies. The Chairperson of Belstat shared the results of work on SDG localization and plans for further development of the platform to the regional level, which aroused extreme interest of Ms Son.
Besides, Inna Medvedeva mentioned the most relevant areas of cooperation with the UN for the future: the next round of MICS, modernisation of existing information systems, creation of a geostatistical portal. She also declared Belstat's intention to once again join the Interagency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDG) in order to contribute to the formation of a quality framework for monitoring SDG indicators at the global level.
In her turn, Gwi-Yeop Son thanked Inna Medvedeva for many years of constructive cooperation between Belstat and UN agencies, noted the high level of work carried out at the national level within the framework of the 2030 Agenda implementation, and expressed confidence that further cooperation would be even more fruitful. She invited the representatives of Belstat to share their national experience in monitoring the achievement of sustainable development at the SDG Summit to be held in New York in September this year. Besides, taking into account the existing progress of Belarus in achieving the SDG, Ms Son proposed to consider the possibility of raising the target values for a number of indicators.
The parties noted the significant potential of cooperation between the organisations and confirmed their readiness to expand cooperation within the framework of new projects.
© National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus. When using information reference to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus is mandatory.
