Invited by the United Nations International Children´s Emergency Fund (Unicef), the IBGE will host today (21) and tomorrow (22) the Fifth Meeting of the Infant Statistics Group of the Statistical Conference of the Americas (CEA), coordinated by the National Statistical Institutes of Chile and Uruguay and with the participation of experts from 22 Latin American countries. The meeting is held at the Windsor Hotel, Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro.

Besides taking part in the opening session, Cimar Azeredo, the IBGE Director of Surveys, will speak on the Use of Censuses to Understand the Childhood Situation with representatives of INE Panama and INE Guatemala. “This event is highly important not only to the IBGE, but also to the other Latin American national statistical offices, since we have the opportunity to discuss and exchange experiences on a number of challenges and advances related to infant statistics, especially in the scope of the United Nations´s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” highlighted Cimar Azeredo.

During the two days of the meeting, 12 presentations will provide an overview of the advances and challenges in the region to follow up SDGs related to childhood. Technical discussions on methodologies to fill the data vaults, results about the level of preparation and maturity in the region to use administrative records to follow up the situation of childhood are also scheduled, as well as discussions on different aspects related to administrative records in public policies, like quality and ethics.

“Science proves that investments made during childhood, especially in the early childhood, represent the best guarantee of inter-generational social mobility and of structural reduction of inequality. Infant statistics are a guarantee of measuring the conditions of the infant population and of the policies targeted at this segment. To participate in the activities of the CEA´s Infant Statistics Group is in-line with the IBGE mission,” says Eduardo Rios Neto, President of the IBGE.

This is the first time that the meeting of the Infant Statistics Group is held in Brazil. The fourth meeting was held in Panama in 2019.