GoingToMeet

The 57th Session of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) to be held in Durban, South Africa, will be the first ISI Session ever held in Sub-Saharan Africa in the ISI’s 122 year old history.

This historic Session will mark a significant milestone in South Africa’s critical path towards the development of statistical human capacity. Conventionally, an ISI Session, held biennially, provides a platform for the gathering of over 5000 of the world’s statisticians to share experience in a diverse range of statistics amongst public, private, research and educational institutions. Yet historically, African (and even South African) participation at ISI Sessions has remained extremely limited.

The 57th Session of the ISI to be held in Durban in 2009 is timely for Africa as the African region witnesses an upsurge in statistical activity, partnerships and notable political will aimed at improving statistical data measurement and quality for monitoring and evaluating better development outcomes in Africa.