SSO and UNICEF join forces to strengthen data on children and women in North Macedonia

The State Statistical Office (SSO) and UNICEF have signed a Memorandum of Understanding officially launching the preparation for the new cycle of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 2027) in North Macedonia. This partnership confirms the joint commitment to ensuring high-quality, internationally comparable data that will help create public policies based on facts and evidence.

The MICS survey is one of the most comprehensive in the world and provides detailed data on health, nutrition, education, early childhood development, child protection, disability, gender equality and living conditions. The data is disaggregated by gender, age, place of residence and social status, allowing policymakers to understand where inequalities exist and how resources can be best allocated.

The Director of the State Statistical Office, Dr. Dejan Stankov, upon signing this Memorandum, emphasized that through this cooperation with UNICEF, we are strengthening the national capacities to conduct large-scale household surveys and provide decision-makers with access to quality data, as well as that MICS 2027 will provide important insights into the living conditions of children and women and will contribute to public policies based on reliable information.

For more than two decades, MICS has been a key source of data on the conditions faced by children and women in North Macedonia, including children and women in Roma settlements. These surveys have helped to make inequalities visible and have enabled the creation of more targeted and effective policies and programs.

The representative of UNICEF, Ms. Leslie Miller, stated that every child matters and every child should be counted. She emphasized that MICS7 will provide updated and credible data for monitoring progress and designing targeted interventions, especially for children at risk.

The survey will be conducted under the leadership of the State Statistical Office, with technical support from UNICEF, and in accordance with global standards for data quality, ethical principles and international comparability.