The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU) Delegation to Eritrea signed yesterday, 29 July 2020, in Asmara, an agreement whereby the EU will be contributing EUR 4.750.000 million to support the implementation of a project titled "Strengthening of Eritrea’s National Statistics and Macroeconomic Statistics Systems (SENSS)".

This is a four-year project, co-funded by the EU and UNDP, and is part of a joined effort to strengthen the national statistical system of Eritrea. The National project coordinator will be the Ministry of National Development (MND). The implementation of the project will be in collaboration with all statistics producing ministries, departments and agencies in the country.

The long-term development objective of this project is to support the Government of the State of Eritrea (GoSE)’s efforts to establish a robust National Statistical Systems (NSS), which collects information, produces timely, accurate and reliable data (disaggregated) for evidence-based planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring. In the immediate term, the project intends to support the GoSE’s efforts in gathering disaggregated information, producing and disseminating data on key economic indicators related to national accounts, and other key macroeconomic statistics.

 The UNDP Resident Representative, Mr. James Wakiaga thanked the EU for its contribution and support to the project  and underlined: “We are very grateful to the Government and European Union for the confidence they have in UNDP  to support the implementation of the statistics project; this is a true hallmark of genuine partnership to support national development efforts in Eritrea to achieve sustainable development”.

It is to be noted that the activities that will feed into this project have already started at the end of 2019, with the initial financing from UNDP. A field mission was conducted during that period by FAFO Norway in Asmara, Eritrea, which evolved into this next phase.

“The European Union highly welcomes that the partnership with the Government of the State of Eritrea and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) takes concrete shape”, stated Mr. Gabriel Leonte, Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Eritrea.

This new project, he added, “will support timely, reliable, comprehensive and quality macro-economic data that will facilitate planning and pursuing sound sectoral policies and development goals. Statistical data is the foundation for development policy, through which investment and private sector can be encouraged. This project can make an important contribution to the promotion of economic growth and good governance, thus benefitting the Eritrean people”.

UNDP and the EU in Eritrea have a long-established relationship, working in close partnership with the Government of the State of Eritrea.

###

For media enquiry, please contact:

Monica Modici, Communications Analyst, UNDP Eritrea at  monica.modici@undp.org