Africa
In Africa, cooperation takes place at continental, regional, and national levels. Eurostat implements regional statistical cooperation projects and development programmes in collaboration with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (INTPA). Eurostat cooperates with the main stakeholders in these statistical projects, at a multi-country level and bilaterally.
Eurostat has worked with the African Union Commission (AUC) for over 10 years to enhance statistical capacities in the African Statistical System (AfSS). This cooperation included study visits, exchanges of experts, organisation of seminars, and implementation of statistical capacity development programmes.
Pan-African statistics programme
Eurostat is actively involved in the implementation of the Pan-African statistics (PAS) programme.
PAS aims:
- to support African integration by strengthening the AfSS
- to ensure the use of quality statistical data in the African integration decision-making process and policy monitoring.
The programme is devised to mobilise expertise in Africa. It is the first EU programme covering Africa as a whole, with actions targeting continental, regional, and national levels.
PAS I
Eurostat assisted the AUC in developing its statistical capacity at continental level. The aim was to improve the production and dissemination of official statistics in the African Union (AU) and to strengthen the coordination of all actors engaged in producing official statistics for Africa at national, regional, and continental level.
The implementation of this first phase started in January 2016 and ended in April 2021.
At continental level, Eurostat supported:
- the establishment of the new AU Pan-African Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC)
- its institutional development (peer reviews, quality framework)
- the design and publication of guidelines, manuals, and questionnaires.
The support was provided in the form of long-term and short-term expert secondments, statistical technical missions, hiring of local expertise in the frame of South-South cooperation, workshops and training courses, remote training and assistance.
The main achievements of PAS I include:
- the publication of Strategy for the Harmonization of Statistics in Africa II (ShaSA II) resulting from the revision of the SHaSA I
- drafting an implementation handbook and supporting the methodological work in 6 priority domains:
- national accounts
- external trade statistics
- labour statistics
- migration statistics
- sustainable development goal indicators
- governance, peace and security statistics.
PAS II
The second phase of PAS is implemented through an EU statistical partnership. This involves DG INTPA, Eurostat, national statistical institutes of the European Statistical System as well as international organisations and external service providers.
The implementation of PAS II started in 2022 and will run until the end of 2025.
The programme combines activities that are implemented on continental, regional, and national levels. To continue producing official statistics, which are necessary to advance the African integration process, Eurostat and the other partners work with a range of partners:
- the AUC
- STATAFRIC
- regional economic communities
- national statistical institutes of the AfSS
- other stakeholders in Africa.
The areas of work covered include capacity development in the production and dissemination of revenue statistics, agriculture statistics, economic statistics, and social statistics. PAS II builds on the SHaSA II and the African Charter on Statistics.
Further reading
- European Commission: Africa-EU partnership
- European Council: 6th European Union - African Union Summit: A Joint Vision for 2030
- European Commission: Questions and answers - Towards a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa
- European Commission: Factsheet - Towards a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa
- African Union: African statistics pocketbook 2021
- African Union: African trade statistics 2020 yearbook