PARIS21's main objective is "to achieve national and international development goals and to reduce poverty in low and middle income countries".
The OECD Development Assistance Committee hosted a meeting of 100 statistical and policy officials from developing countries, international organisations, regional banks and bilateral donors on 18–19 November 1999 to discuss the challenges faced by policymakers due to outdated, insufficient statistics, and the challenges faced by statisticians due to limited resources and low priority status in government.
[2] As a result of this meeting, PARIS21 was established as a "global partnership of national, regional and international statisticians, analysts, policy-makers, development professionals and other users of statistics".
[3] In function, PARIS21 acts as a "forum and a network" for relevant stakeholders "interested in the production and use of statistics to support economic and social development and to promote better governance".
The Board meets once a year to review the PARIS21 Programme of Work and to facilitate dialogue on general issues relating to the development and use of statistics.
[4] PARIS21's work involves assisting low- and middle-income countries to design, implement, and evaluate National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS).
[11] Capacity Development 4.0 is defined as:"the process through which a country’s national statistical system, its organisations and individuals, obtain, strengthen and maintain their abilities to collect, produce, analyse and disseminate high-quality data to meet user needs".
[11]This approach is intended to bring together new data stakeholders, better involves users and to promote a holistic view of statistical capacity development.
While ADAPT is an online tool, it is also used in face-to-face field workshops organised worldwide by PARIS21 and partners to train national statistical offices on data planning.
The assessment is meant to provide input on mainstreaming the gender perspective in national strategies for the development of statistics, a process which is currently underway in Cambodia and El Salvador (as of January 2020).
[21] In December 2019, the Bern Network released a paper[21] on its five action areas to improve the quality and quantity of funding for development data, building on an earlier report published in July 2019.
[22] The fora also serve as a venue to advance recommendations for improving current statistical practices, while also contributing to knowledge creation and sharing.