SESRIC hosted the Twenty Second Session of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) at its Headquarters in Ankara-Turkey on 4-6 September 2013. Representatives of 21 international organisations participated in the Twenty Second Session of CCSA. The Centre was represented by Prof. Savas Alpay, Director General; Mr. Atilla Karaman, Acting Director of Statistics and Information Department; Mr. Nabeel Dabour, Director of Economic and Social Research Department; Mr. Fatih Serenli, Director of Training and Technical Cooperation Department; Ms. Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk, Senior Researcher; Mr. Syed Tahir Mahmud, Researcher, Mr. Abdulhamit Öztürk, Research Assistant, and Mr. Abdullah Al Mamoun, Intern.

Established in 2002 in order to continue coordination in the statistical sector, which had been done by the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) Subcommittee on Statistical Activities prior to 2002, the CCSA have members from 39 international and supranational organizations, whose mandate includes the provision of international official statistics in the context of the Principles Governing International Statistical Activities, and which have a permanent embedded statistical service in their organization and regular contacts with countries.

Prof. Savaş Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, delivered a Welcome Speech at the Opening Session of the Twenty Second Session of the CCSA. After welcoming the participants to the Twenty Second Session, he briefed them about the activities of SESRIC. Prof. Alpay went on to say that SESRIC devoted much of its resources for the development of statistical capacity in the member countries of the OIC. In this respect, he reminded that SESRIC and IDB organize annual sessions of the OIC Statistical Commission since 2011 with the participation of more than 40 OIC Member Countries where the participants have the opportunity to exchange experiences and views on the recent statistical developments. Prof. Alpay mentioned that the working groups established under the umbrella of OIC-StatCom have taken the first steps to initiate new programs including the Accreditation of Professional Statisticians in OIC Member Countries. Prof. Alpay also invited the participants to the International Forum on Financial Systems with the theme “Sustainable Finance for Sustainable Development” on 11-12 September 2013 under the auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. Following Prof. Alpay, the presentations on the departmental activities of SESRIC took place.

Thanking Prof. Alpay for hosting the Twenty Second Session of the CCSA at the SESRIC Headquarters in Ankara-Turkey, the CCSA Co-Chairs, Mr. Henri Laurencin, UNCTAD, and Mr. Werner Bier, ECB, proceeded with the “items for discussion and decision” on the agenda. These included:

• Impact of the update of the UN Fundamental Principles on the CCSA
• Coordination for the post-2015 agenda
• Statistical Capacity Building
• Quality assurance frameworks
• Special Session on “New approaches for data collection, analyses and dissemination”
• Health Statistics
• Dissemination of microdata
• Network of statisticians working in International Organizations
• Endorsement of the paper “Best Practices on the use of non-official sources in international statistics”
• Preparations for the 45th Session of the UN Statistical Commission
• Multi-year planning - Consideration for establishing a CCSA work programme

On the last day of the 22nd Session, the Commission discussed the “items for information” including

• Information by Inter-Agency Expert Groups: Implementation of the SNA 2008, SDMX implementation in national accounts, SDMX implementation in international merchandise trade statistics
• Integration of geospatial information and statistics
• Update on the Friends of the Chair on coordination
• Human resources
• ISI World Congress, CCSA logo, and World Statistics Day

As Mr. Henri Laurencin is getting retired from UNCTAD; Mr. Pietro Gennari, FAO, has been elected as the new Co-Chair of the CCSA. The Committee decided to hold its 24th Session in Rome, Italy in 2014.

Documents

• Agenda (English)
• Information Note (English)

Photos