Cape Town – Statistics experts and government officials from across the Southern African Development Community, including Eswatini, will meet in Cape Town from 26 to 28 May 2026 to review progress on regional statistics programmes and strengthen the production of high-quality, comparable data across member states.
The SADC Statistics Committee meeting, convened by SADC with support from South Africa, was announced from the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana, on 19 May 2026.
The meeting will focus on assessing the implementation of the SADC Statistics Programme, including the SADC Protocol on Statistics, the Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics and the SADC Regional Project. Participants will also examine progress reports and frameworks covering macroeconomic, poverty, trade, gender, prices, agriculture and labour statistics. 
As the principal regional coordinating body for statistics, the SADC Statistics Committee provides oversight on data collection, analysis, quality assurance and reporting to support informed decision-making and effective regional development planning.
A key area of focus will be accelerating the signing and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Statistics, which was approved by the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in August 2021 but is yet to be signed and ratified by all member states.
Other areas on the agenda include reviewing progress on regional statistical programmes, assessing findings and recommendations from statistical capacity building activities, evaluating progress on the digital transformation of regional statistics, and receiving updates on international statistical standards and continental statistical integration processes.
The meeting will also look at promoting the harmonisation of statistical methodologies, standards and indicators across SADC member states in line with international best practice, as well as strengthening coordination of data collection, reporting and monitoring for economic, social and environmental indicators.
