In the last decade, there has been proliferation of national, regional and international initiatives, each containing a set of goals and targets that must be monitored for progress and performance. In addition to these initiatives, our member countries are being challenged by new development issues such as financial and economic crisis, climate change, food security, etc. which are affecting all of us. It is crucial to have access to timely, accurate, consistent and reliable data to undertake studies and identify countries most affected by these issues and initiatives with the view to enable development institutions to respond to the need of the affected countries. To this end, given that the National Statistical Organizations (NSOs) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Member Countries -who are at different levels of development and face various constraints and problems are the primary sources of data, the effective cooperation among these institutions will be vital.

Against this background, in pursuant of the recommendation made by NSOs from the OIC Member Countries at the side meeting held in conjunction with the UN Statistical Commission Meeting of February 2009, the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organized the Meeting of NSOs of the OIC Member Countries on 22-23 March 2010, in Istanbul, Turkey.

For this meeting, the discussions centred around the theme ‘Statistics for Development in Post-Crisis World’ and the goal of the meeting was to find ways and means to bridge the communication gap between the data users and providers in Post-Crisis World.

Delegates of the NSOs of twenty OIC Member Countries; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan;. and of the COMCEC, ICDT, IDB, OIC General Secretariat, PARIS21, SESRIC, UNESCWA and World Bank participated in the meeting.

The Meeting started on 22 March 2010 with the welcome and opening message of the Secretary General of the OIC, H.E. Professor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, at the inaugural session. The Session proceeded with the welcome and opening speeches of Mr. Ifzal Ali, Chief Economist of IDB, Mr. Mohanna Al Mohanna, Director General of CDSI, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SESRIC and Mr. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC. The inaugural session was followed by the two Keynote Addresses made by Mr. Mohamed-El-Heyba Lemrabott Berrou, Manager of PARIS21; and Mr. Ifzal Ali, Chief Economist of IDB.

Three of the six Sessions of the Meeting had the themes “Better Statistics for Better Policy Response During and Post-Crisis World”, “Capacity Building Initiatives at the OIC Level” and “Case Studies and Best Practices from NSOs”. During these Sessions, panellists made their presentations and each session was followed by discussions. Two of the sessions were the Breakout Sessions with the themes “NSOs and Data Demand on Emerging Development Issues” and “Bridging the Communication Gap between the Data Users and Providers” where the delegates were gathered into three separate groups. During the first part of each session the discussions proceeded within the groups and during the second part the reporters of each group shared the conclusions reached within their groups with all of the delegates.

During the last session of the Meeting, on 23 March 2010, the delegates of the NSOs of the OIC Member Countries and international and regional organizations agreed to issue the Istanbul Declaration on the Meeting of the National Statistical Organizations of the OIC Member Countries. The declaration consisted of eleven items. The delegates after expressing their thanks and appreciation to SESRIC, IDB and Republic of Turkey, itemized their agreements related to the topics:

• The importance of accurate, reliable and consistent data for policymaking and strategy development in OIC Member Countries
• The need to foster increased relevance, responsiveness, and results-orientation individually and collectively
• Working together, sharing knowledge, information/publications, and best practices, and helping one another through exchanging technical experts to provide training and hands-on experience
• Providing better statistical services
• Encouraging the governments of the OIC Member Countries to better integrate statistical development as a sector in their National Development Plans
• Providing statistical services to support demand for new indicators

Moreover, the delegates agreed to set up an Experts Group Meeting to look into the issue of providing support to demand for new indicators. They welcomed the initiative to set up OIC Statistical Working Group (OIC-SWG) to coordinate, harmonize and standardize statistical activities of OIC Institutions. Finally, they agreed to organize on annual basis the meeting of OIC-NSOs under the title “OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-SC)” and make SESRIC the secretariat of the OIC-SC.

Detailed information regarding various aspects of the meeting are available below:

Declaration (English Version) (Arabic Version) (French Version)

Agenda and Programme (English Version) (Arabic Version) (French Version)

Statements and Presentations

1. Inaugural Session

- The Message of H.E. Prof. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Secretary General of the OIC, to the Meeting of the National Statistical Organisations of the OIC Member Countries

2. Keynote Addresses

- "Strengthening the Production and Use of Statistics in the OIC", Mr. Mohamed-El-Heyba Lemrabott Berrou, Manager, PARIS21 Secretariat

- "Measurement for Management", Mr. Ifzal Ali, Chief Economist, IDB

3. Session I: Better Statistics for Better Policy Response During and Post-Crisis World

- Statement of Mr. A. Ömer Toprak, Acting President, TurkStat, Turkey

- "Dimensions of Islamic Statistics", Mr. Kamal Saleh, Deputy Director General, Jordan

- Statement of Mr. Babakar Fall, Director General, National Agency of Statistics and Demography, Senegal

- "Indonesia during the Global Economic Crisis: 2008–2009, How Deep the Impact?", Mr. Rusman Heriawan, Chief Statistician, BPS, Indonesia

4. Session III: Capacity Building Initiatives at the OIC Level

- "Renforcement de Capacité Statistique: Exemple de la Formation Continue au Maroc", Mr. M. Said Chahoua, Head, General Statistics Division, Morocco

- "Statistical Capacity Building Activities of SESRIC", Ms. Sıdıka Başçı, Director of Statistics and Information Department, SESRIC

- "NSOs and IDB STATCAP in Post-Crisis World: Challenges and Prospects", Mr. Abdullateef Bello, Director of Data Resources and Statistics Department, IDB

- "Building Statistical Capacity Across the OIC: the Role of PARIS21", Mr. Mohamed-El-Heyba Berrou Lemrabott, Manager, PARIS21 Secretariat

- "The World Bank and Statistical Capacity Building", Mr. Mustafa Dinç, Senior Economist/Statistician, World Bank

- "UNESCWA Sub-Programme 5: Statistics for Evidence-Based Policy-Making", Ms. Fathia AbdelFadil, Senior Statistician, Statistics Division, UNESCWA

5. Session V: Case Studies and Best Practices from NSOs

- "Best Practices of the Statistical System: Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM)", Ms. Wan Ramlah Wan Abdul Raof, Chief Statistician, Department of Statistics, Malaysia

- "National Strategy for Developing Palestine’s Statistical System: PCBS’ Dissemination Way", Ms. Ola Awad, Acting President, PCBS, Palestine

- "Case Studies and Best Practices from Uganda Bureau Statistics (UBOS)", Mr. E. S. K. Muwanga-Zake, Chairman, UBOS Board of Directors, Uganda

- "Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) in Egypt", Ms. Tamy Mohamed Amein, General Director at the Population Studies and Research Center, CAPMAS, Egypt (Arabic Version) (English Version)

- "La Stratégie Nationale du Développement de La Statistique (SNDS) du Niger", Mr. Ousseini Hamidou, Advisor to the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics, Niger

Background Meetings

SESRIC’s Meeting with the Delegates of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of the OIC Member States to the 40th Session of UN Statistical Commission, 26 February 2009, New York - USA

Photos