SESRIC hosted the Third Global Meeting of the Expert Group on Refugee and Internally Displaced Persons Statistics (EGRIS) at its Headquarters in Ankara, Turkey between 12 and 14 February 2019. Eighty-one officials from EGRIS members, including representatives of national statistical offices and other relevant governmental bodies from 19 OIC member countries, along with experts from 15 non-OIC countries, and 17 different regional and international organisations attended the meeting. A meeting on Stateless Persons Statistics was also hosted on 15 February 2019 as well as the 10^th Regional Workshop on the Experiences and Tools under MED-HIMS (Households International Migration Surveys in the Mediterranean countries - a programme initiated by European Union) took place between 14 and 16 February 2019 at SESRIC Headquarters.

In his welcoming remarks, H.E. Amb. Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC, stated that while global figures on the number of people suffering from natural disasters and conflicts are constantly rising, Muslim countries are affected more so than any other parts of the world by large-scale humanitarian crises and disasters.

Ambassador Kulaklıkaya mentioned that, as a new member of EGRIS, SESRIC is ready to give its support in developing and taking the recommendations to country level and further implementation.

He also appreciated the work done so far by the group. “The work of the EGRIS is of very high importance as the lack of standardized, streamlined and coordinated data collection and reporting efforts in the area of forced displacement makes it hard for countries to develop effective and sustainable programming for these vulnerable populations,” he added.

The objectives of the Third Global Meeting of the EGRIS were to develop an initial draft version of the Compilers Manual, a practical guide for practitioners in countries working to improve statistics on forced displacement, and to discuss capacity-building activities on the relevant area.

The Third Global Meeting of the EGRIS finalised the draft structure of Compilers Manual; identified tools to include alongside the Manual; agreement on modalities for the Compilers Manual, included document, e-learning and information sharing platforms and tools; and a repository of identified capacity building opportunities.

The EGRIS was established in accordance with the decision of the 47^th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in 2016. The group consists of participants from national authorities, international statistical organisations, and other technical experts, co-led by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Statistics Norway and Eurostat, and aims to address the challenges related to refugee and IDP statistics. To oversee the work of Phase-II focusing on developing international recommendations for IDP statistics and developing a manual on compilation of statistics of refugees and IDPs, Turkish Statistical Institute and Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) have joined the EGRIS Steering Committee. SESRIC became a member of the EGRIS on 4 September 2018 in accordance with the resolutions of the Seventh Session of OIC Statistical Commission.

For more information on the previous EGRIS meetings, please visit:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/expert-group-on-refugee-statistics/expert-group-meetings