| 1. At its tenth session the
Committee on Statistics considered the draft provisional
agenda for its 1998 meeting on the basis of a
secretariat note. It decided that the provisional
agenda should include as item 3 "Implementation
of recommendations of the Committee at its ninth
and tenth sessions" and that the report of the
Bureau and the report of the Working Group of
Statistical Experts should become items 4 and
5, respectively. The Committee acknowledged the
value of country papers prepared for the Committee
session and encouraged the continuation of that
practice. It was suggested, however, that oral
presentation of country statements might be discontinued
and that the question should be examined further
by the Bureau. It was proposed that gender statistics,
environment statistics and economic statistics
should also be included on the agenda, along with
issues that would be taken up by the United Nations
Statistical Commission at its 1999 session. The
Committee held the view that the provisional agenda
could be finalized in due course, and it encouraged
countries to submit comments to the Bureau of
the Committee for its deliberation.
2. The Committee had been working on the assumption
that its eleventh session, like the three previous
ones, would be of five days' duration. However,
the ESCAP Commission at its fifty-third session
earlier this year decided that all sessions
of its subsidiary bodies should not be longer
than three days. This decision obviously has
an impact on the number of topics that the Committee
can sensibly cover, and the secretariat has
been consulting the Bureau on the effect this
might have on the agenda for the Working Group
of Statistical Experts, which the Committee
had asked the Bureau to decide on. As a result,
some topics which the Committee had envisaged
would be on its own agenda are being taken up
by the Working Group itself -- items such as
population and housing censuses, gender statistics
and some fields of economic statistics. This
does not mean that these topics will not be
taken up by the Committee at all, since the
Working Group's report will be before the Committee.
More generally, the Bureau will be discussing
the relative roles and functions of the Committee,
Working Group and the Bureau itself in its meeting
on 10 November.
3. With regard to the issues to be taken up
by the United Nations Statistical Commission
at its next session in 1999, the provisional
agenda and the documentation envisaged for that
thirtieth session, as of now, is attached as
an annex to this paper. The main areas on that
agenda which do not appear to be covered by
the draft suggested by the Committee or taken
up already by the Working Group of Statistical
Experts are: classifications, technical cooperation,
some elements of coordination and integration
of international statistical programmes, and
certain areas of economic statistics not specifically
mentioned, such as international trade statistics,
the International Comparison Programme, and
services statistics. The Bureau and Working
Group will need to take these items into account,
and the Bureau will eventually have to factor
in any changes to the Statistical Commission's
agenda introduced by the Working Group on International
Statistical Programmes and Coordination, which
meets in February 1998; however, to avoid an
apparently impossibly long list, the secretariat
has not included these items in the draft Committee
agenda which follows.
4. Taking the above into account, the following
is an outline of a draft provisional agenda
for the Committee's eleventh session, for review
by the Bureau under its terms of reference,
and subsequently by the Working Group of Statistical
Experts:
- Opening of the session
- Adoption of the agend
- Implementation of recommendations
of the Committee at its ninth and tenth sessions
- Report of the Bureau
- Report of the Working
Group of Statistical Experts
- Review of statistical
activities in the region
- Matters arising from
and inputs to sessions of the ESCAP Commission,
the Statistical Commission and major global
and regional meetings
- Statistical development
challenges at the turn of the century:
- Monitoring achievements
on key social and economic issues;
- Information resource
management: successes and challenges;
- Environment statistics;
- Selected areas of economic
statistics
- Issues relating to the
Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific,
including the reports of the Governing Board
- Issues relating to
information technology applications:
- In the national statistical
service;
- In the public sector
- Programmes of work in
statistics:
- Programme changes, 1998-1999;
- Draft work programme,
2000-2001
- Other matters
- Election of the Bureau
- Adoption of the report
5. There is no specific item above on the question
of the duration of Committee sessions, although
some Bureau members have mentioned that it should
be discussed; presumably it could be taken up
under the report of the Bureau or of the Working
Group. Even without such an item, and given
that some items can probably be dealt with fairly
quickly, the above appears to be a heavy agenda
for a three-day meeting. The Bureau and Working
Group will need to judge how much can fruitfully
be handled by the Committee, no doubt bearing
in mind the Chairman's suggestion that the Committee
should tackle only strategic issues.
ANNEX
Provisional agenda and
documentation for the thirtieth session of the
Statistical Commission
- Election of officers.
- Adoption of the agenda
and other organizational matters.
Documentation
- Provisional agenda and
annotations
- Note by the Secretariat
on the organization of the work of the session
- Note by the Secretariat
on the state of preparation of documentation
for the session
3. International trade statistics.
Documentation
- Report of the Task Force
on International Trade Statistics
4. International economic and social classifications.
Documentation
- Report of the Secretary-General
on international economic and social classifications
5. Statistical implications of recent major
United Nations conferences.
Documentation
- Report of the Secretary-General
on implementation and use of the Minimum National
Social Data Set
- Report on the seminar
on poverty statistics, organized by the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean,
in collaboration with other regional commissions
6. Aspects of economic statistics.
Documentation
- Reports of the groups
carrying out work on various aspects of economic
statistics, including evaluation of the International
Comparison Programme
7. Environment statistics.
Documentation
- Report of the Task Force
on Environment Statistics
8. Service statistics.
Documentation
- Report of the Task Force
on Service Statistics<
9. National accounts
Documentation
- Report of the Task Force
on National Accounts
- Draft classification of
individual consumption by purpose Draft classification
of the functions of government
- Draft classification of
the purposes of the non-profit institutions
serving households
- Draft classification of
outlays of producers by purpose
10. Finance statistics.
Documentation
- Report of the Task Force
on Finance Statistics
11. Technical cooperation.
Documentation
- Report on the initiative
to develop best practices and other issues
12. Coordination and integration of international
statistical programmes.
Documentation
- Report of the Working
Group on International Statistical Programmes
and Coordination on its nineteenth session
- Report of the Administrative
Committee on Coordination Subcommittee on
Statistical Activities on its thirty-first
and thirty-second sessions
- Report of the special
ad hoc group on the structure and operation
of the Statistical Commission Report on an
integrated presentation of statistical work
of the international organizations
13. Programme questions and related matters.
Documentation
- Draft programme of work
of the Statistics Division of the United Nations
for the biennium 2000-2001
- Proposals concerning the
medium-term plan for statistics
14. Provisional agenda and dates for the thirty-first
session of the Commission.
15. Report of the Commission on its thirtieth
session. |
