SESRIC organised the 3rd Meeting of the NSOs of the OIC Member Countries on 24 February 2011 as a side event during the 42nd Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA. Dr. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, and Ms. Münevver Nilgün Egemen, Senior Researcher represented the Centre thereat.

The meeting was attended by the delegates from the NSO’s of 25 OIC Member Countries together with representatives from the Statistical Office of European Union (EUROSTAT) and the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics (AITRS). The main aim of this meeting was to present and discuss proposed agenda items for the forthcoming First Session of OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-SC) that will be held in Istanbul, Turkey on 11-12 April 2011.

At the beginning of the meeting Dr. Alpay informed the participants about the importance of the First Session of the OIC Statistical Commission. He stressed that this initiative would be an important platform for enhancing coordination and cooperation among the National Statistical Offices of the OIC Member Countries, and thus active participation and valuable contributions by the NSOs would be an integral component of the undertakings and the performance of the Commission. The Commission will also bring new dynamism to statistical capacity building activities at the OIC level. After the introduction of Dr. Alpay, a short presentation on the potential topics that should be included on the agenda of the First Session of the OIC Statistical Commission were presented by SESRIC. The proposed agenda items included, among others,

1. Expectations from OIC Statistical Commission: Aims, Functions and Organisational Principles
2. Awareness Raising for National Statistical Systems
3. Accreditation of Statistical Professionals to Improve Competency in OIC Member Countries (Proposed by Central Informatics Organisation (CIO), Bahrain)
4. Improvement of the Efficiency of Statistical Cooperation Activities Among the OIC Member Countries (Proposed by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey)
5. Strengthening Statistical Collaboration Among OIC Member Countries and International Organisations
6. OIC Statistical Working Group (OIC_SWG): Achievements and Prospects
7. Recent Developments and Future Challenges in Statistics

All delegations confirmed their commitment for making OIC Statistical Commission a successful platform for enhancing the National Statistical Systems of the OIC Member Countries as well as their willingness to work together. Majority of the delegates indicated that the OIC Statistical Commission would also serve a very important function by being a platform to develop the methodologies and standards for statistical indicators reflecting the common values of the OIC Member Countries. The delegates finally identified the following items to be included in the agenda of the First Session of the OIC Statistical Commission :

1. OIC-SC: Expectations, Goals, and Operational Principles
2. Effective Cooperation for Statistical Capacity Building
3. Enhancing Statistical Awareness and Outreach
4. Concerted Efforts, New Prospects and Future Challenges in Statistics

At the end of the meeting Dr. Haidar Fraihat, Director General of the Department of Statistics Jordan, briefed the participants on the outcomes of the First Expert Group Meeting on Islamic Statistics, that was co-organised with SESRIC on 21-22 December 2010 in Amman, Jordan.

Presentation

“OIC-Statistical Commission Proposed Agenda “ by SESRIC (English)