First meeting of the Working Group on Implementation of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics in Latin America and Caribbean

Aquascalientes, Mexico 6-7 September 2012

The first meeting of the Working Group on Agriculture Statistics set up by Statistics Conference for Americas was held in Aguascalientes, Mexico  to start preparation of Implementation of the Global Strategy on Improving Agricultural and Rural Statistics in Latin America and Caribbean. The meeting was organized by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), Mexico in cooperation with the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografía y Estadistica (IBGE), and the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The main objective of the meeting was to start the activities of the Global Strategy  in the Latin America and the Caribbean and to define the steps towards preparation of the Regional Implementation Plan for the Strategy taking into account the current state of the agriculture statistics in the region. The meeting reviewed the state of national statistical systems in the participating countries with a view to obtaining information on main constraints in their systems and the their needs for training, technical assistance and methodological research. During the meeting presentation were made on the concept of the Global Strategy and the experience of implementation of its activities in Asia and Africa. The meeting also reviewed the Standard Questionnaire for Country Assessment and made recommendation for its adaptation for the region.

The meeting was attended by 24 participants from 9 countries (Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru. The participants included agricultural statistics experts from National Statistical Offices (NSO), and Ministries of Agriculture.

A work plan of activities was adopted during the meeting. Arrangements were made for twinning of countries to support carrying out of the assessment of their systems for collection of agriculture statistics.