Remarks by Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Chumakov at the signing ceremony of donor agreement with the United Nations Population Fund
Dear colleagues,
I would like to congratulate you on the signing of the Memorandum about a project ‘Strengthening Population Data Collection, Analysis and Utilization for Evidence-Based Policy Making in the Commonwealth of Independent States’ worth of 4,1 mln US dollars.
Russia and UNFPA have a rich experience in cooperating on statistical and demographic data. Right now similar projects are being implemented in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. We believe that this new project that covers 9 countries of the region will not only widen our partnership with UNFPA, but further promote interregional cooperation.
For us one of the most important characteristics of the current project is its practical nature – it will be realized in parallel with national censuses in our partner countries as well as assist them in achieving some of the SDGs, especially SDG 17.18: ‘Capacity building for quality, timely, reliable and disaggregate data’, notwithstanding the fact that 93 of 230 SDG indicators depend on population data.
In concluding I would like to stress again that Russia values UNFPA as a trusted partner and hopes to further strengthen our cooperation in full compliance with consensual principles of ICPD-1994.
Thank you.
