MEETING OF THE COORDINATION COUNCIL OF DONORS AND DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS IN THE FIELD OF STATISTICS
On May 2, a meeting of the Coordination Council of Donors and Development Partners in the field of statistics was held in the city of Dushanbe. The meeting was attended by the leadership and heads of relevant departments of the Agency on Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, representatives of ministries and agencies, development partners, and other responsible persons.
The meeting was opened by the Director of the Agency on Statistics under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Jamshid Nurmakhmadzoda, who emphasized the importance of holding this event as a platform for political dialogue, resource mobilization, and coordination of actions among development partners, donors, ministries, and agencies of Tajikistan with the goal of achieving the priority tasks of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), implementing the National Development Strategy of Tajikistan, and advancing national statistics.
It was noted that the statistical authorities of Tajikistan have achieved significant successes and noticeable progress in their activities, establishing close and effective cooperation with international organizations and development partners, including the World Bank, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and others. With the support of international organizations, necessary measures are being taken to strengthen the capacity of the national statistical system in the collection, analysis, accuracy, and timely provision of statistical data on the country’s socio-economic development.
Jamshid Nurmakhmadzoda named the World Bank as one of the key and reliable partners of Tajikistan’s statistical agency, highlighting its significant contribution to the development of the state statistics system, staff training, methodological and technical support, as well as the improvement of the Household Budget Survey (HBS), which is used to assess poverty levels in the country and monitor the implementation of the Poverty Reduction and Welfare Improvement Strategy in Tajikistan. He emphasized that one of the most important directions of state statistical policy is obtaining indicators of the population’s living standards based on data from the Household Budget Survey.
The Household Budget Survey is the only national study and statistical source used to assess the population’s welfare, income and expenses, availability of food and non-food goods and services, poverty level (including food and child poverty), monetary expenditures on goods, determination of the middle-income class, analysis of food consumption in physical and monetary terms, physiological state and caloric intake, production of agricultural products in personal subsidiary farms for own consumption and sale, as well as indicators related to expenditures on healthcare, education, and other spheres.
Special attention during the meeting was paid to the issue of conducting the agricultural census in Tajikistan. Jamshid Nurmakhmadzoda noted the importance of agricultural indicators and the contribution of the agricultural sector to the gross domestic product, and called the census an important component of this area. Support from the Asian Development Bank and other development partners in this direction was recognized as important and necessary.
Next, within the framework of the “Modernization of the National Statistical System of Tajikistan” project, funded by the World Bank, a presentation report on the achieved results was given.
Firdavs Asmatbekzoda, Head of the Department of Industry Statistics and Investment in Construction of the Agency on Statistics, gave a presentation on “Engaging Development Partners in the Preparation of Official Statistics for Climate Change Adaptation,” noting the importance of this initiative for developing climate indicators in the sectors of energy, agriculture, environment, transport, water resources, and forestry.
Also presented were reports on the agricultural census, child statistics, market price monitoring for food security analysis, the updated official website of the Agency on Statistics, and other topics.
During the meeting, donors and development partners expressed their views on the discussed issues, noting the timeliness and relevance of the proposed initiatives and expressing readiness for further strengthening cooperation and interaction.
