Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) organized an international conference on official statitics titled “Efficient Statistical Information System for the State Building” on 23-25 September 2013 in Ramallah, Palestine to celebrate the 20th anniversary of PCBS and to launch the National Strategy of Development for Statistics 2014-2018.

As the development process should be guided by national strategies to ensure the accommodation of national priorities in structured manner, the Conference targeted to attract the attention of policymakers on using official statistics in decision-making process in order to scientifically monitor and measure the impact of economic and social policies.

During the first session of the Conference, Prof. Alpay, Director General of SESRIC, delivered a presentation titled “Current Challenges of Official Statistics in OIC Member Countries”. In his presentation, Prof. Alpay gave a comprehensive evaluation about the performance of OIC Member Countries in terms of Statistical Capacity Indicator. He also informed the participants about the ongoing projects of SESRIC aiming to improve overall statistical capacity in the member countries.

Emerging issues that have an impact on the functions and quality of Palestine's Statistical System were also highlighted. The main themes of the Conference included:

• Official Statistics and Challenges: Open data, official statistics and the media, meeting users needs
• Integration of Statistical System: Monitoring systems, administrative records, metadata, National Strategy 2014 - 2018.
• Statistical Literacy: Statistical story-telling and data visualization
• Accessibility: Perceptions, Concepts, priorities, requirements.

For more information, please visit http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/pcbsann/en-us/main.aspx