DOHA: The Director General of the General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP) and Acting President of the Qatar Statistics Authority, Sheikh Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani, has participated in the Eleventh Ordinary Session of the Governing Board of Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) in Montreal, Canada, recently.
The session reviewed UIS major achievements in the areas of dissemination and analysis of education statistics and in providing such statistical date for use UN agencies and member countries in preparing human development reports and the Millennium Development Goals reports as well as in other fields.
The UIS director briefed on the Institute’s achievements in areas such as International Standard Classification of Education, and on workshops and expert meetings that were organised in various parts of the world, including the Arab region, which saw considerable increase in hosting events.
The latest developments on literacy survey and the adoption of the General Conference of Unesco for the revised 2009 culture statistics framework besides the activity of the UIS on science and technology, information, research and development statistics were also addressed.
The members of the Governing Board expressed their satisfaction and thanked the UIS Director for the accomplishments.
The official presented a paper that highlighted the needs of Qatar and the Arab region in the areas of statistical capacity building. The paper call on Unesco to assist Arab countries and Qatar in implementing the revised 2009 Unesco Culture Framework, especially as Qatar is preparing to mark ‘Doha: the capital of Arab culture 2009’.
The director also sought the UN agency support in the field of higher education statistics including educational outcomes and their impacts on labor market outcomes.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jabor Al Thani also held several meetings on the sidelines of the 11th session of the UIS Governing Board with UIS Director.
During the meeting it was agreed to hold a meeting for Arab experts in Doha in February 7-8 to review the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).
