The Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century, or PARIS21, was established in November 1999 by the United Nations, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank as a response to the UN Economic and Social Council resolution on the goals of the UN International Conference on Financing for Development. PARIS21's main objective is "to achieve national and international development goals and to reduce poverty in low and middle income countries". In pursuit of this, PARIS21 "facilitates statistical capacity development, advocates for the integration of reliable data in decision-making, and coordinates donor support to statistics". The PARIS21 Secretariat is hosted within the Statistics and Data Directorate of the OECD in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. History 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regional banks and bilateral donors on 18–19 November 1999 to discuss the challenges faced by policymakers due to outdated, insufficient statistics, and the challenges faced by statisticians due to limited resources and low priority status in government. 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". The primary purpose of PARIS21 is to "promote, influence and facilitate statistical capacity development and the better use of statistics". 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". Members of this partnership work to advocate for better statistics production and use in both "policy and technical domains", and push for more and better funding for data and statistics in development. Structure The PARIS21 Secretariat, led by the PARIS21 Secretariat Executive Head, is responsible for coordinating Partnership activities and "implementing the day-to-day work programme of PARIS21 as approved by the Board and the Executive Committee". The Board consists of stakeholder representatives from developing countries, bilateral donors and international organisations. 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. Outside of Board meetings, Secretariat activities are guided and monitored by a small Executive Committee consisting of members selected by the Board. This committee has the ability to organise task