Samoa Elected to the United Nations Statistical Commission

Samoa was elected to the United Nations Statistical Commission on Monday 14 September 2020 during the elections held at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Samoa and Japan obtained the majority of votes required to be elected to fill the vacant seats of the Asia Pacific Group.

They join Colombia, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Switzerland and the United Kingdom as new Members of the Statistical Commission for a term of four years starting from 1 January 2021 to 2024.

The election is a major achievement for Samoa as this is the first time Samoa has been elected to the Statistical Commission.

The Statistical Commission plays an important role as the highest decision making body responsible for setting statistical standards, international statistical activities and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level.

The voice of Small Island Developing States in this body is crucial to ensuring the realities, challenges and efforts on data collection in the Pacific and SIDS are recognized by the United Nations. Samoa will be represented on the Statistical Commission by Ali’imuamua Malaefono Taua.T-Faasalaina, Government Statistician of the Samoa Bureau of Statistics. Aliimuamua has over 30 years experience in statistical services.

The Commission consists of 24 member countries of the United Nations elected from the five regional groupings of Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin America and Caribbean, and Western European and other States.