The Tenth Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council for Western Asia (ESCWA) Statistical Committee was held on 30-31 January 2013 in the Headquarters of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in Cairo, Egypt. The delegates of National Statistical Offices (NSO) from 11 ESCWA Countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Oman, Sudan Tunisia, and Yemen and the representatives of the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS), Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), League of Arab States (LAS), Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Bahrain participated in the Session.

During the meeting the outcomes of ongoing activities and projects implemented by statistics division were presented in order to inform the Committee Members on gaps, shortcomings and areas for future improvement in the field of economic and social statistics, gender related matters, monitoring of millennium development goals and statistical capacity building. Members of the Committee expressed their views on the progress achieved and, expectations that will guide the future work of the Committee and that of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The Session was organised consecutively with the Thirty Seventh Session of the Permanent Technical Committee on Statistics of LAS which was held on 28-29 January 2013. Also it was decided to organize future meetings of the Committee back to back with the Permanent Technical Committee on Statistics of LAS to ensure higher participation.

Documents of the Tenth Session of the ESCWA Statistical Committee can be accessed on:

http://www.escwa.un.org/information/meetingdetails.asp?referenceNum=1986E