Madam  Chair,

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen

In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), together with 169 targets and 230 indicators will guide the actions of Governments and the development community through 2030.

Partners in Population and Development (PPD)- An intergovernmental alliance of 26 countries -acknowledges the need for reliable and timely population, health and demographic information,  essential for effective monitoring of the achievement of the SDG goals and targets.

Quality data needed on issues related to population dynamics, demographic dividend, reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people, gender and health inequity and aging are critical for policy and strategy development.

The member countries of Partners in Population and Development are committed to develop systems for generating population, health and demographic data.

PPD would work with its member countries for promoting South-South Cooperation for strengthening the demographic evidence base for the post-2015 development agenda.

Madam Chair,

 As the Secretary General’s report has shown, much remains to be done to strengthen data systems and to support the in-depth analysis, disaggregation and use of the data generated.

One of the key challenges of strengthening the demographic evidence is the establishment or expansion of civil registration and vital statistics systems. This is important to monitor the right to legal identity of each individual, and to monitor maternal and child survival.

In this context donors should continue to support the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman, Every Child (EWWC) or other financing mechanisms that provide assistance for the establishment or expansion of civil registration and vital statistics systems in developing countries. We acknowledge the continuing support of Canadian Government to EWEC.

PPD member countries are firmly committed to establish a functioning civil registration and vital statistics system and ensure that it generates timely vital statistics.   PPD secretariat will work with and remind the member countries to further develop and implement strategies to improve coverage and reporting accuracy and to foster the collaboration of civil registration with the health system to improve the reporting of causes of death according to the guidelines set by WHO.

The PPD secretariat will advocate for the preparation and undertaking of the 2020 round of censuses. We will leverage, the lessons learned from each counties, in the use of technology to improve the efficiency of data collection, processing and dissemination.

PPD will explore the possibility of compiling the lessons from each member countries in geo-referencing as a standard practice in census taking and that the corresponding spatial datasets are made available in digital form.

We acknowledge the need for open-data policies allowing the dissemination of public-use, geo-referenced and anonymized micro data from censuses, demographic surveys and civil registration and vital statistics systems.

The PPD secretariat will assist the member countries to ensure that the standards, guidelines and tools used for data collection are consistent with guidance provided by the UN Statistical Commission and other relevant agencies.  We will advocate with the member countries that demographic statistics are classified by age and are presented by single year of age from 0 to 99, and always by sex.

On behalf of the member countries, the PPD secretariat will further advocate and promote South-South Cooperation frame work to access to national statistical department and related institutions of each member countries with the necessary ICT equipment and software to improve the collection, processing and dissemination of data and support for personnel training in the use of new technologies.

PPD will   advocate with the member countries  to strengthen the capacity of national statistical institutions to conduct household surveys and encourage data producers to follow the guidelines developed by the Accelerated Data Program and the International Household Survey Network on how to conduct household surveys, document the survey process, disseminate the data gathered and archive them.

PPD secretariat will advocate with the MIS departments of the member countries to further strengthen to address the population, health and demographic evidence base of post 2015 Development agenda.

We acknowledge the need for specialized surveys for population subgroups that are unevenly distributed in the national territory, including internal and international migrants.

Within the frame work of South-South Cooperation, the PPD secretariat will further encourage and support efforts of the Member countries to integrate demographic and other data sources via geo-referencing, including by facilitating access to satellite images.  We are aware that this is particularly important given the emphasis of the 2030 Agenda on the well-being of all population groups, reinforcing the need for data disaggregation and for moving beyond national averages.

 

Madam Chair,

On behalf of the member countries, we call upon the donor agencies to contribute to strengthen partnerships – particularly south to south and triangular cooperation, to continue supporting the work on harmonization and integration of data, and to facilitate their use in setting a baseline for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals.

PPD secretariat will advocate with the member countries in facilitating the development of policies for the use of data, including safeguards to maintain privacy and confidentiality, and guidelines to facilitate access to data controlled by private firms.

We would further advocate for greater cooperation between national research institutions and national statistical departments/institutions of member countries to foster the in-depth analysis of existing demographic data.

We call upon the United Nations systems to continue their work and support to the inter-agency and expert groups to harmonize estimates, improve estimation methods, report progress at the regional and global levels and enhance national capacities in the production and use of quality population, health and demographic data.

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) the Inter-governmental Alliance of the Global South – mandated to  promote South-South Cooperation, further confirm our commitment to strengthening the demographic evidence base for the post-2015 development agenda. This will be done though advocacy, policy dialogue, international forum, health and population diplomacy, capacity development, technical cooperation, knowledge management and strengthening partnerships.

The recently held Ministerial Strategic Dialogue on South-South Cooperation for Population and Development jointly organized by National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NHFPC), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Partners in Population and Development (PPD), adopted the ‘Beijing Call for Action’ for South-South Cooperation in Population and Development,  established an International Forum on South-South Cooperation in Population and Development.

Efforts to strengthening the demographic evidence base for the post-2015 development agenda will be one of agenda of the Forum

Madam Chair,

Thank you for your attention