A meeting was held between PCBS' President Ms. Ola Awad and a delegation from the Representative Office of Canada in Ramallah headed by the Representative of Canada to the Palestinian Authority Mr. Douglas Scott Proudfoot at PCBS HQ's on Wednesday January  10st 2018 to have the latest update on PCBS' scope of work and discuss potential forms of mutual future cooperation between the two parties.

Ms. Ola Awad; the President of PCBS welcomed the delegation and explained PCBS'  role in contributing to the overall governmental strategy and state building by providing evidence based data on a sectorial level. Ms. Awad elaborated on the importance of data utilization in decision and policy making levels and mentioned that the quality of the data was and will remain the main pillar of PCBS' strategy, the confidence in Palestine's official statistics  is supported by being a member of many international standards and quality assurance institutions. PCBS has reached a level where the organization is not focused on its own development rather than the development of the National Statistical System as a whole with all of its partners.

Mr. Proudfoot explained that the Canadian Government's strategy is focused on supporting evidence based programs which is in line of PCBS' mandate. He agreed on the importance of focusing on the development on a sectorial level and expressed his willingness to explore the possibility to support PCBS in the future due to the important role it plays in building the Palestinian State. He mentioned that the main focus for Canada in Palestine is the Gender Sector, which is a clear priority for PCBS and is a cross cutting topic. In addition the census results of the Palestinians in refugee camps and gatherings in Lebanon were discussed.  

The relation with Statistics Canada was also discussed where Ms. Awad explained that Statistics Canada and close partners in which are partners to PCBS in many forums and committees including the High Level Group,  and one of the top performing and a highly experienced institution which is considered one of the highest ranking official statistics offices worldwide.

Ms. Awad thanked Mr. Proudfoot for his visit and interest in PCBS work, and in his turn Mr. Proudfoot expressed his appreciation for the brief which was given and assured that Representative Office of Canada will remain the door open for more meetings to discuss potential cooperation.