Under the framework of a German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) project on “Support to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS)’ Study Visits to Strengthen the Process of Establishing a Training Centre for PBS”, a delegation of 7 participants from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan paid a study visit to SESRIC. The delegation was headed by Mr. Munir Ahmad Aslam, Director General of PBS, and accompanied by Dr. Michael Wild, Advisor to GIZ in Pakistan, and Mr. Marcus Delacor, Managing Director of euphorum GmbH, implementing agency of the study visit. As the Government of Pakistan decided to establish a statistical training centre to satisfy the demand for capacities in the field of statistics, the focus of the study visit was to gain a better understanding on the statistical training activities of SESRIC implemented under the Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) initiative and impact of StatCaB trainings at large.

The meetings between the delegation participants and SESRIC staff were organised in three sessions. In the first session, Mr. Nadi Serhan Aydin, Researcher, briefly presented the activities of the Economic and Social Research Department of SESRIC. Afterwards, Mr. Hüseyin Hakan Eryetli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department of SESRIC, informed the delegation about the OIC-VET Programme and details concerning the capacity building activities implemented under the same programme. At the end of the first session, both presenters answered the questions that the delegation asked.

Following the first session, Dr. Savas Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, received the delegation. At the outset, Dr. Alpay welcomed the delegation to SESRIC and congratulated Mr. Aslam on his recent appointment as the Director General of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. He told the delegation participants that the capacity building activities of SESRIC, especially the StatCaB activities, possess a special dimension by twinning National Statistical Offices (NSO) of OIC Member Countries as provider and beneficiary countries. Dr. Alpay went on to say that the annual sessions of the OIC Statistical Commission are the culmination of all these efforts and thanked Mr. Aslam for the regular participation of PBS in the Sessions and the Working Groups established. He also highlighted the role of the NSOs in providing their governments the tools for evidence based policy making and enabling the citizens to access the data they need for tracking the impacts of policies of their governments. Furthermore, Dr. Alpay informed the participants of the delegation about the activities of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA), of which SESRIC is a member, for the coordination in the statistical sector among the international and supranational organizations. Dr. Alpay concluded his remarks by saying that SESRIC is ready to support the PBS in establishing its statistical training centre. For his part, Mr. Aslam thanked Dr. Alpay for receiving the delegation and informed him about the objective of the study visit. The PBS Director General said that the delegation visited the premises of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on 19 November 2012 and had fruitful discussions with the TurkStat staff. Mr. Aslam stated that the statistical training centre to be established in Pakistan will also focus on research. During the deliberations, possible cooperation activities between SESRIC and PBS were discussed between the parties.

In the last session, Ms. Munevver Nilgun Egemen, Senior Researcher, delivered a presentation on the statistical capacity building activities of SESRIC carried out under the StatCaB initiative, with a focus on Pakistan. She also briefed the participants on the activities of OIC-StatCom. Mr. Syed Tahir Mahmud, Researcher, and the members of the delegation exchanged views and opinions concerning the future statistical training activities that can be provided for/by PBS under the StatCaB initiative. Following Mr. Syed Tahir Mahmud, Mr. Atilla Karaman, Researcher, informed the participants about the statistical training centres of the OIC Member Countries, with a special focus on the experience of BPS-Statistics Indonesia. Mr. Karaman explained that the STIS (Institute of Statistics) is an official higher education institute offering 4-year undergraduate programs under the administration of the BPS-Statistics Indonesia and thus closing the gap between the needs of the BPS-Statistics Indonesia and the classical undergraduate statistics curricula offered at the universities. Currently, the STIS hosts two undergraduate departments which are Department of Statistics (with specialisation areas of Economic Statistics and Social and Population Statistics) and Department of Computational Statistics. Mr. Karaman also went on his presentation by explaining the current stance of statistical capacity of Pakistan based on the statistical capacity indicator scores calculated by the World Bank. After the demonstration of the Motion Chart Generator and the BASEIND database of SESRIC by Mr. Karaman, the last session was concluded with a Question and Answer session.

The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan will also pay a study visit to the Turkish Ministry of Development on 21 November 2012.

Documents

• Agenda (English)
• List of Participants of the Delegation of Islamic Republic of Pakistan (English)
• Presentation on the Activities of SESRIC Statistics and Information Department (English)