HE Ambassador Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of Statistical, Economic, Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), addressed the World Statistics Day Forum on 20 October 2015 in Doha, Qatar. Organized by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS), the Forum was graced by HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al- Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, and HE Dr. Saleh Mohamed Al-Nabit, Minister of Development Planning and Statistics of the State of Qatar.

Addressing the Forum in the Opening Ceremony, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al- Thani underlined the significance of official statistics in the formulation and monitoring of sustainable development strategies. HE the Prime Minister furthermore stressed the important role played by the MDPS in developing Qatar’s overall vision in close cooperation with the relevant agencies, and in preparing and monitoring national development strategies in addition to setting up an integrated statistical system. Going on to say that the State of Qatar shares with the rest of the world the beginning of a new development era with the Sustainable Development Goals towards 2030, HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al- Thani mentioned about the need for the integration of statistical indicators to monitor the progress of the national development vis-à-vis the SDGs. In this respect, HE the Prime Minister called on the public and private sectors to cooperate with the MDPS to realize this objective.

HE Dr. Saleh bin Mohammed Al Nabet, Minister of Development Planning and Statistics, said that the MDPS exerts significant efforts to continuously develop the national statistics system of Qatar with an aim to keep pace with methodological developments in data collection, processing and dissemination. Referring to the recently conducted National Population and Housing Census, HE the Minister underlined that census outputs would effectively contribute to the monitoring of demographic, economic, social and environmental phenomena in Qatar.

Following the Opening Ceremony, Ambassador Musa Kulaklıkaya addressed the Forum in the Session on “Data Revolution for Sustainable Development, and Update of Statistics Systems”. In his speech, Ambassador Kulaklıkaya commended the United Nations resolution on the celebration of 20 October every five years as “World Statistics Day” and stated that the strengthening of the interaction between data producers and users would lead to sound policy making, efficient development planning and effective monitoring mechanisms. Expressing that the data has become at the forefront of discussions among the international community, he stressed that the Millennium Development Goals period changed the conventional meaning attributed to the statistics and highlighted that the decision makers would face difficulties in planning and implementing the activities, without high quality data.

Briefing the audience on the contributions of the Centre within the last decade in levegaring the statistical capacities of the OIC member countries, Ambassador Kulaklıkaya shared that within the framework of the OIC Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme around 140 statistical capacity building activities have been conducted with the involvement of the member countries and international organisations, as well as the achievements of the OIC Statistical Commission through its several initiatives and projects. The Director General of SESRIC concluded his speech by citing the five aspects that need to be taken care of while facing the challenges presented by the Big Data phenomenon to the official statistics systems.

The Forum was concluded with the Session on “Official Statistics for Policy Formulation, Monitoring and Reporting” in which presentation from various Qatari ministries were made on using statistics in formulating policies and monitoring their corresponding outputs and outcomes.

On the sidelines of the Forum, the MDPS organized an exhibit of images that portrayed the census operations conducted previously in Qatar. The exhibirion also displayed the tools and devices used by enumerators in the conducted censuses in Qatar.

The World Statistics Day Forum aimed at underscoring the importance of official statistics in the formulation of policies, and monitoring of development achievements and exchanging views, ideas, expertise associated with the emerging statistical topics relevant to the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Documents:

• Statement by HE Ambassador Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC, at the Session on “Data Revolution for Sustainable Development and Update of Statistics Systems” (English)
• Agenda (English)
• Concept Note (English)