WASHINGTON – The Islamic Development Bank along with Heads of the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the United Nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate towards strengthening global statistical capacity and facilitate the sharing of data, tools, standards, and analysis. The Heads of the International Financing Institutions (IFIs) reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen
inter-agency sharing and collaboration on issues related to data and statistical capacity building.

This collaboration is expected to provide the global community with better statistical tools to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and post-2015 development agenda as well as help to improve the lives of the people in the developing world. The European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development offered their full support for the goals of the MoU.

Signing the MoU, UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon said: “this historic meeting of resourceful institutions confirmed my belief that by working together we can demonstrate the power of multilateralism to secure a better future for all. The first-of-its-kind meeting and agreement will help us further deepen our joint work to meet the MDGs and develop a post-2015 agenda for a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future”. Speaking on behalf of the signatories, African Development Bank
President and Meeting Chairman Donald Kaberuka said that availability of timely and better statistics will provide the basis for understanding the social and economic circumstances in which people live, evolve better policies and programs thereby enhancing stronger statistical capacity for better decision making. He added that through the MoU, the IFIs hope to build the foundation for a robust post-2015 Agenda.