Food and Agriculture Statistics

African Statistics Day 2017

18/11/2017

Every year, on 18 November, African countries celebrates the African Statistics Day (ASD) with the objective of raising public awareness about the importance of statistics in economic and social development.

The theme for 2017 
Better lives with better economic statistics

 

African Statistics Day 2017 will be celebrated on 18 November 2017. Each year Africa celebrates this day to raise public awareness of the importance of statistics in all aspects of social and economic life. The theme of the Day this year is “Better lives with better economic statistics” and focuses on the critical role economic statistics plays in underpinning economic governance that leads to durable growth, and linking economic growth with better lives and better economic status for all citizens of Africa.

Availability and appropriate use of good economic statistics can translate into better lives for people through providing evidence as a base for policy and decision-making by the nation or by firms, households, and citizens. Statistics provide information for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of the progress in meeting the goals and targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as well as a basis for effective economic governance to promote the welfare of a nation.

The achievement of the sustainable development goals, which are packed with tremendous promises of better quality of life for all, is to be owned, especially by African countries, where poverty continue strike the life of large groups of people. SDG implementation needs to take a methodical approach starting from understanding the functioning of the national economy – whereby economic statistics play a cornerstone role – to designing the most appropriate economic development strategies and policies.