MEDSTAT II - Third Task Force Training
Date: 14-15 July 2009
Venue: Istanbul - Türkiye

Istanbul, TurkeyThird Task Force Training of MEDSTAT II was held on 14 – 15 July 2009 in Istanbul, Republic of Turkey. It was an event within the second phase of the MEDSTAT Programme of the European Union, which was established as a result of the Barcelona Conference held in 1995. MEDSTAT I was implemented from 1996 to 2003 and MEDSTAT II was launched in 2006 for a 45 – month period.

MEDSTAT aims to respond to the needs of the association agreements, particularly in relation to free trade, sustainable development and social development. It contributes to the supply of statistical information that is useful in monitoring the progress of Euro-Mediterranean co-operation.

Its objective is to harmonise statistical methods in line with European and international norms and standards and to improve the coherence of data in the Mediterranean partner countries as well as their comparability with the statistical data of the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.

MEDSTAT also aims to improve the quality of services provided to users by the national statistics institutes and the other partner bodies involved in the production of statistics. The provision of up-to-date, reliable and relevant high-quality statistical data is vital for political decision - making and to ensure good governance.

Since January 2006, MEDSTAT II has been working on extending the qualitative work already done by organising training and contributing technical resources to the information systems of national institutes and other statistical producers in the Mediterranean countries.

Special attention is paid to the coherence of data, to their harmonisation and dissemination in nine statistical sectors: trade in goods and services, transport, migration, tourism, environment, national accounts, social statistics, energy and agriculture.

Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey are among the OIC Member Countries that are partners of this programme.

Dr. Sıdıka Başçı, Director of the Statistics and Information Department of the SESRIC represented the Centre during the Third Task Force Training of MEDSTAT II. There, she made a presentation on the training activities of the Centre in the area of Statistics. Representative of MEDSTAT II, Mr. D. Afza evaluated the training programmes of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Moreover, he briefed on the experiences of training of trainers and e-learning. Representative of EFTA, Mr. G. Gamez made a presentation on the synergies with international donors active in statistical training. Representatives of Morocco and Palestine described their training systems and projects within their institutions. Beneficial round table discussions took place during the Training.