The Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is a subsidiary body of the Commission established pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 2000/7, in which the Conference was entrusted with the following mandates, among others: to promote the development and improvement of national statistics and work to ensure that they are comparable internationally, bearing in mind the recommendations of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the specialized agencies and other relevant organizations; to promote international, regional and bilateral cooperation among national offices and international and regional agencies; and to draw up a biennial programme of regional and international cooperation activities to meet the demands of the countries of the region, subject to the availability of resources.

The 2020-2021 biennial programme of regional and international cooperation activities of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC is framed within the Strategic Plan 2015–2025, which established as the pillars of action of the Conference the achievement of more robust institutions and a stronger governing role for national statistical offices; the development of human resources and statistical production in order to ensure quality; and regional and international coordination and cooperation for the development of official statistics in the region.