7th Meeting of the coordinating Committee on African Statistical Development (CASD): task forces take the lead in statistical development in Africa

United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) made this remark in an address to the beginning of 7th Meeting of the Coordinating Committee on African Statistical Development (CASD). With ECA as its Secretariat CASD was established in 1992 as an inter-agency committee to "coordinate and direct efforts to revitalize and develop" African statistical systems following the complete loss of infrastructure and disintegration of some statistical services in the 1980s. The state of information development in Africa is characterized by lack or poor quality of data, weak or inadequate telecommunications systems, lack of a critical mass of trained personnel and laws and regulations that impede information flows, a senior United Nations said here today. K.Y. Amoako,