The Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC), was founded as a subsidiary organ of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in pursuance of Resolution No. 2/8-E adopted by the 8th Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), held in Tripoli in May 1977. The Centre started its activities in Ankara on 1 June 1978.

The main original mandate, which has been drawn up for SESRIC in 1978, is threefold:

To collate, process and disseminate socio-economic statistics and information on and for the utilisation of the member countries,
To study and evaluate the economic and social developments in the member countries to help generate proposals that will initiate and enhance co-operation among them, and
To organise training programmes in selected fields geared to the needs of the member countries as well as to the general objectives of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

In accordance with its statutory mandate and in line with global and regional developments and challenges, SESRIC has, over the last four and half decades, introduced various measures and modalities and launched new approaches and programmes to strengthen its role in contributing to the efforts of the OIC and its member countries to address the challenges facing them in their development efforts. The Centre is now considered as one of the important subsidiary organs of OIC in charge of promoting socio-economic development in the context of advancing intra-OIC cooperation in the relevant areas of its mandate, namely statistics, economic and social research and training and technical cooperation.

In the area of statistics and information, SESRIC plays a significant role in ensuring the availability of the necessary statistical data and information on OIC member countries that would make them better informed of each other’s potentials, needs and capacities in order to facilitate their elaboration on cooperation projects and integration schemes. In this context, the Centre is considered as the main socio-economic statistical and information bank on and for the OIC member countries. The Centre’s main statistical database, the OIC Statistics (OIC-Stat database) contains data on 1852 socio-economic indicators classified under 27 categories for the 57 member countries dating back to 1970. The Centre also regularly publishes the “Statistical Yearbook on OIC Member countries”, the only OIC statistical publication. Meanwhile, SESRIC contributes significantly to the efforts of the member countries towards enhancing the technical capacities of their National Statistical Offices (NSOs) through the Centre’s Statistical Capacity Building Programme (StatCaB) and by assuming the role of the Secretariat of the OIC Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom), the only OIC cooperation fora in the domain of statistics.

In the area of economic and social research, SESRIC continued to study and evaluate the economic and social developments in the OIC member countries in order to generate proposals that will initiate and enhance cooperation among them. In its capacity as the main socio-economic research organ of the OIC, the Centre continued to undertake research activities on a wide range of socio-economic issues of concern to the OIC member countries. Within this framework, the Centre continued to undertake extensive assignments to prepare technical background reports and research studies on several socio-economic cooperation issues placed on the agenda of various related OIC conferences and meetings, particularly the sectoral ministerial conferences of the OIC. By so doing, the Centre continued to contribute significantly to the OIC policy dialogue mechanism through analysing the current situation at the OIC level and suggesting the appropriate policy actions that need to be taken in order to face the challenges and strengthen the intra-Islamic cooperation in the concerned areas.

In the area of Training and Technical Cooperation, SESRIC plays a significant role in enhancing cooperation and collaboration among OIC Member Countries by providing services in technical assistance, exchange of best practices, skill development, networking and policy dialogue on a wide-range of socio-economic issues. In this regard, SESRIC has currently 23 sector-specific capacity building programmes realized through different modalities, including training courses, training workshops and study visits. Through these programmes, the Centre provides training opportunities to an increasing number of staff in various national institutions in the OIC member countries with a view to contributing to the efforts of these countries towards enhancing the human capacities of their institutions. Moreover, SESRIC implements various technical cooperation projects and activities in collaboration with the relevant national, regional and international institutions in order to support the national authorities of the member countries in their developmental efforts.

By so doing, SESRIC continued through its capacity building programs to play a significant role in enhancing the south-south cooperation among OIC member countries in various socio-economic areas and fields. The Centre plays a significant role in facilitating the transfer and exchange of knowledge, know-how and experience among the member countries through more effective partnership and cooperation with relevant OIC, national and international institutions while ensuring a balanced geographical distribution of its services.

Over the last four decades, SESRIC, as a subsidiary organ of the OIC, has demonstrated its ability to, successfully; undertake its original mandate, which was entrusted to it 46 years ago. The Centre has accumulated solid experience and successful achievements in all three areas of its mandate; i.e., statistics, research and training. At the threshold of its 46th year of existence and active involvement, within the framework of its fields of specialisation, in the common effort towards the realisation of the noble objectives of the OIC, SESRIC is increasingly solicited to put its accumulated experience and acquired know-how at the service of the Organisation and its member countries as reflected in the ever-expanding scope of activities it carries out.

More details of our activities, initiatives and programmes including the final output of our work in the fields of socio-economic research, statistics, training and publications, together with a great deal of OIC-related information, are given in the relevant sections of this site.

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