4 April 2018, Geneva, Switzerland - The StaTact came to Africa last week when 10 countries participated in its roll-out during dedicated regional workshops. UNITAR and UN Statistics Division teamed up with UNECA African Centre for Statistics and UNDP to deliver two two-day workshops - one in English and one in French – with a focus on the governance of data ecosystems for the SDGs. The first workshop brought together government officials from Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Sudan, and Uganda representing National Statistical Offices, Planning Ministries, selected line Ministries and non-traditional data sources. The second workshop used a similar format with participants from Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Madagascar, Mauritania, and Togo.

“While donors nowadays emphasize on sustainable development, the finance of such development is becoming scarcer and scarcer. For this reason, governments will need to shift away from traditional external donor funding and move towards more sustainable finance mechanisms that can be allocated and managed in-country.”