GCC-Stat Co-organizes the Arab Forum on Building Statistical Capacity for a Data Revolution.

With the Participation of Ministers, High-level Guests and 100 Experts Monday the 10th of October, the Statistical Center of the Gulf Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC-Stat), in collaboration with the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) in Qatar, and the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), co-organized Arab Forum on Building Statistical Capacity for a Data Revolution for two days in Doha. The Forum was attended by ministers, high-level guests representing the Ministries of Planning, and Statistical and Development Authorities in the region. The Forum was also attended by about 100 experts representing a complete group of all stakeholders in many statistical areas. To gain more support for the road map implementation steps, the Forum focused on enhancing the statistical capacities, and unifying the Arab region to agree on concrete steps to build statistical capacities in the Arab countries to deal with the data revolution, and to respond to the data needs at national, regional and international levels, in the context of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. The Forum represented an opportunity to review statistical development and the need for data. It also identified the opportunities and challenges facing statistical systems in the region. The GCC-Stat, which is located in Muscat, presented a working paper during the Forum about the challenges of dealing with the data revolution from the GCC-Stat’s perspective. It is worth mentioning that the center is currently cooperating with an international organization to conduct a study about the electronic linkage of all statistical bodies in the member states that will provide an up-to-date GCC statistical database based on the best well-known quality standards.