Daejeon (Republic of Korea), 24-25 October 2023 – The CoE held the third Regional Advisory Group (RAG) meeting at the Statistical Center in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, bringing 33 experts from national, regional, and international organizations, as well as academia in the field of statistics, crime, and policymaking. Over the course of two days, RAG members reviewed CoE’s progress and achievements, sharing their insights on the strategy and workplan for 2024-2025 to ensure the relevance and quality of its activities.
The third RAG Meeting was comprised of four sessions: Introduction of UNODC tools and the CoE; Regional and national experiences; Regional overview of crime and criminal justice statistics and challenges in Asia and the Pacific; and Way forward for Asia and the Pacific, followed by group discussions.
During the first session, representatives of UNODC and the CoE presented various approaches to improving national data and statistics on crime and criminal justice taken by UNODC and their implementation in the two regions. These included technical assistance carried out by the CoE on the implementation of the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS), Crime Victimization Surveys (CVS), and Corruption Surveys (CS), the development or revision of methodologies and their training modules, and lastly, pilot study of the new statistical framework for measuring the gender-related killing of women and girls.
The second session focused on exchanging experiences with regard to crime and criminal justice statistics at the national and regional levels. The Mongolian National Statistics Office shared their status of implementing the first national victimization survey, progress, expected outcome, and key takeaways. The Samoa Bureau of Statistics briefed on SDG 16 data availability and identified challenges, advocating for support to the Pacific region. The UNODC Regional Office for South Asia introduced their support and initiatives focused on the use of data for evidence-based policymaking. The UNODC Information Centre in Central Asia highlighted the importance of securing the basic set of crime data, a challenge faced by many countries in the region.
The following two sessions were dedicated to in-depth discussion to broaden understanding of the regions, identify challenges where the CoE can provide support, review ongoing and scheduled activities, and strategize future action plans. Based on insights and feedback from participants, the CoE confirmed its commitment to strategizing future workplan and activities to better tailor its assistance and address the issues in the region.
The meeting successfully achieved its objectives, fostering enthusiasm for concerted efforts to enhance the member states’ capacity in collecting, producing, analyzing, and disseminating crime and criminal Justice statistics and improve data availability in Asia and the Pacific. RAG members and the CoE will continue maintaining regular communication and collaboration to provide ongoing support in the region.
Further information on the CoE can be found here. Twitter: @CoE_UNODC and Facebook: @UNODC.KOSTAT.CoE.
