Recognizing the power of information to shape better policies, guide development programmes and increase accountability, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with leaders of six multilateral financial institutions, Monday announced measures to strengthen inter-agency sharing and collaboration on issues related to data and statistical capacity building.
This will provide the global community with better statistical tools to measure progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and post-2015 development with a view to improving the lives of people in the developing world.
In a press statement, received here by PANA, Ban said “This historic meeting of resourceful institutions confirmed my belief that by working together we can demonstrate the power of multilateralism to secure a better future for all.
“The first-of-its-kind meeting and agreement will help us further deepen our joint work to meet the MDGs and develop a post-2015 agenda for a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future.”
Leaders of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank, the United Nations, and World Bank Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate in strengthening statistical capacity in member countries and to facilitate the sharing of data, tools, standards, and analysis to improve statistics for monitoring development outcomes.
The European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development offered their full support for the goals of the MoU and will contribute to the post-2015 development agenda in their areas of expertise.
Speaking on behalf of signatories to the MoU, the AfDB Chief and Meeting Chairman, Donald Kaberuka, said, “More timely and better statistics provide the basis for understanding the social and economic circumstances in which people live, enabling better policies and programmes.”
He said that stronger statistical capacity would also help drive more sophisticated decision making, “for example, through the application of natural wealth accounting, a clearer understanding of the distributional effects of social and economic programmes, and the ability to take account of the impacts of decisions on women.
“Our work together will help build the foundation for a robust post-2015 Agenda.”
Participants also reaffirmed their commitments to achieve the MDGs and discussed the opportunity to collaborate in the development of the post-2015 development agenda.
“We need better information and we need it more frequently. This is the only way for us to know whether we are making progress toward our goals of improving the lives of the poor,” said Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group.
“Just as the MDGs profoundly shaped our approach to development at the turn of the century, we expect the post-2015 development agenda to help us define a vision for a more socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable development path,” Jim said.
