A joint international workshop titled 'Independence of Statistical Agencies between Governance and Political Alignment’ was held by the University of Human Development and the Union of Arab Statisticians on Zoom platform on 11^th February 2022 at 20:00 Iraq Time and 19:00 Jordan Time.

The workshop covered two important topics: first, the relationship between statistics, governance and politics and, second, good governance. The first topic was presented by Prof. Dr Majid Othman, President of the Union of Arab Statisticians. It included clarification of the relationship between statistics, governance and politics, and it touched upon realistic studies from multiple countries and how to upgrade governments to credibility and transparency in presenting data. The second topic was presented by Prof. Dr Anwar Muhammad Faraj, Assistant President of the University of Human Development for Scientific Affairs and Graduate Studies. It included the concept of governance, its elements, fields, dimensions, and how to achieve good governance. During the virtual workshop, a number of interventions were made by the audience to clarify some concepts and present some actual cases within different work environments.

Prof. Dr Gazi Raho, Secretary-General of the Union of Arab Statisticians, and Prof. Dr Muzhir Al-Ani from the University of Human Development were moderators of the workshop.