—from Epidemiological Bulletin, Vol. 24 No. 2, June 2003—

Report of the Thirty-fourth Session on Health Statistics of the United Nations Statistical Commission, March 2003

The Thirty-fourth Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission took place on 4-7 March 2003 in New York, NY, U.S.A. The session was attended by twenty-four Member States of the Commission. Observers for other Member States of the United Nations system and for intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations also attended. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office for the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) were represented.

The Commission reviewed the ongoing work of groups of countries and international organizations in various fields of demographic, social, economic, and environmental statistics and on certain cross-cutting issues in statistics.(1) As presented succinctly below, issues addressed by the Commission included the overall coordination between international organizations and national statistical offices in the production and dissemination of health statistics; international support to build capacity in developing countries to respond to the needs of monitoring activities related to Millenium Development Goal 8 (“Develop a global partnership for development”); and the importance of statistical capacity-building as part of development programs.

WHO presented a paper that summarized its recent activities in relation to health statistics. The paper included a discussion on WHO’s scientific peer review; development and dissemination of health statistics; World Health Survey; and strengthening country capacity. The Commission welcomed the report and, among other things:
a) Expressed support for the work of WHO on the WHO Family of International Classifications, and requested guidelines on the preparation of national health accounts.
b) Proposed that guidelines be prepared on implementing the automated coding systems for recording cause of death;
c) Requested WHO, in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division and other relevant bodies of the United Nations system, to explore alternative methods of estimating the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS).
d) Requested that a group of Friends of the Chair be created to examine coordination among international organizations and between international organizations and national statistical offices in the production and dissemination of health statistics, recommend actions to be taken for improvement, and report back to the Commission.
e) Further requested that the sub-item entitled “Health statistics” remain in the agenda of forthcoming sessions of the Commission. (1)

The Commission also reviewed the report of the Secretary-General on the subject of Social Statistics and recommended actions to be taken. Inter-alia, the Commission said that, with respect to the international collection of disability statistics, it:
a) Emphasized the need to ensure the collection of internationally comparable disability statistics; and,
b) Recommended the compilation of gender-relevant statistics.(1)

The Commission also discussed the report on the status of the millennium development goal country reporting. The Commission agreed that further harmonization and prioritization in the field of development indicators were needed, in particular with regard to the indicators for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs came into being as a result of the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 147 heads of State and Government and 189 nations in September 2000. The objective of the Declaration is to promote a comprehensive approach and a coordinated strategy, tackling many problems simultaneously across a broad front. To help track progress, the development experts of the United Nations agencies, funds, and programs, as well as the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank derived from the Millennium Declaration a framework of measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women.(2)

In its thirty-fourth Session, members of the Commission emphasized that:
a) Any international list of recommended indicators should be adapted in each country to the economic and social circumstances and priorities of that country, and take into account each country’s statistical capacities and need for a phased, practical program of statistics development; and
b) National statistical services should have a leading role in developing national country reports.(1)

The Commission considered an agenda item entitled “Statistical Capacity-building.” The corresponding report reviewed cooperative activities by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) which seek to build the statistical capacity of countries in the respective regions. UNSD continues to pay particular attention to building capability by transferring technical expertise between countries and promoting common technical standards and methodology.(3)

The Commission emphasized the importance of statistical capacity-building and stressed that statistical capacity-building efforts needed to be an integral part of development programs.

These and other topics that relate to national statistics, their comparability, and the promotion of improved statistical methods will be included in the agenda of the Commission’s thirty-fifth session in March 2004.

References
(1) Organization of the United Nations. Statistical Commission. Report of the Thirty-Fourth Session. New York, NY, USA: UN; March 2003. (E/CN.3/2003/34)
(2) Organization of the United Nations. Statistical Commission. Report of the Thirty-Fourth Session. Harmonization of indicators and reporting on progress towards the millenium development goals. NY, USA: UN; March 2003. (E/CN.3/2003/21)
(3) Organization of the United Nations. Economic and Social Council. Report of the Thirty-fourth Session of the United nations Statistical Commission. Statistical capacity-building. New York, NY, USA: UN; March 2003. (E/CN.3/2003/23)

Source: PAHO’s Area of Health Information and Information Systems (AIS).

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Epidemiological Bulletin, Vol. 24 No. 2, June 2003