Mandate for international cooperation departments Turkstat Case Sixteenth Meeting of the Management Group on Statistical Cooperation 20-21 March 2014, Luxembourg Dr. Gürdal GEDİK Head of International Cooperation and EU Coordination Group International Relations Department

Background Information International relations has long tradition in TurkStat. International relations policy is in line with the foreign policy priorities of the government. Cooperation with other countries’ statistical offices constitutes an important part of the relations. Cooperation with international organisations; UN, OECD, EU, World Bank, SESRIC, BSEC, OIC, ECO.

Organization of International Relations Department International Project Management Group International Cooperation and European Union Coordination Group

Organization of International Relations Department International Project Management Group: Preparation, implementation and coordination of projects financed by EU and other international organisations International Cooperation and EU Coordination Group: Cooperation with international and regional organisations, bilateral relations with Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Caucasian, Balkan and African Countries Coordination works in the context of EU harmonisation process

Organization of International Relations Department Human Resources TITLE Number Head of the Department 1 Expert (including 2 Heads of Group) 14 Statistician 2 Engineer Economist Data-Preparation Controlling Operator Temporary Personnel TOTAL 22

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Implementation of EU Projects International Relations Department is responsible for application, implementation, financial management, coordination, monitoring and reporting of statistical projects that aim to harmonize with EU Acquis. IPA Multi Beneficiary Programmes and National Programmes preparation of project proposals preparation of grant applications managing the tender processes coordination of consultancy and data collection activities monitoring of the projects financial management of grants organisation of local and international training activities organisation of participation to Eurostat meetings and traineeship programmes etc.

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Implementation of EU Projects (cont’d) Multi-Beneficiary Programmes: PHARE 2005, MBP 2006, IPA MBP 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 National Programmes: USST Programme Phase I (2003-2007) USST Programme Phase II (2007-2009) USST Programme Phase III (2011-2014)

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Coordination of Other International Projects World Bank Strengthening the National Statistical System of Kazakhstan (KAZSTAT) Project Strengthening the National Statistical System of Afghanistan (AFGHANSTAT) Project Specific projects with EFTA and UN

Key Tasks of International Relations Department EU Compliance Works Monitoring and coordination of studies to meet Closing Benchmarks of Chapter 18: Statistics within EU Negotiation Process Monitoring and coordination of the Light Peer Review Improvement Actions Contribution of TurkStat in critical documents like Country Progress Reports (both prepared by EU and Turkey) ; Accession Partnership Agreement; National Programme Annual updating of the Statistical Management Information System (SMIS+)

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Technical Cooperation Turkish International Cooperation Agency–TIKA activities Cooperation activities with Caucasian, Asian, Balkan, Middle- East and Northern Africa Countries Programmes are run by dispatching TurkStat’s experts to these countries or training programs/seminars held in Turkey Bilateral cooperation Financed by national budget and occasionally partner countries’ budget

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Technical Cooperation (cont’d) Relations with international organisations UN Statistics Division (Statistical Commission and subject-related working bodies) Economic Commission for Europe (Conference of European Statisticians (CES) and subject-related working bodies) OECD (Statistics Directorate and subject-related working bodies) IMF, ILO, WHO, UNESCO, WTO, FAO Non-official international organisations (International Statistical Institute-ISI)

Key Tasks of International Relations Department Technical Cooperation (cont’d) Relations with regional statistical organisations Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) Statistical Directorate of Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation (BSEC)

Good Practices Revision of existing mandate: Departments of both central organisation and regional directorates were re-structured in October 2012, New mandate contains more detailed list of tasks Existing internal implementing rules – the code / guideline Some revisions Culture of longstanding international cooperation Understanding of task allocation An amendment on the “Regulation of Statistical Council” was adopted in 2013: “expanding the Council’s structure”, TurkStat made a revision its organisation structure in October 2012 . This has lead to revision of their existing mandate. The new mandate of IRD contains more detailed list of tasks and is approved by the DG of the office. TurkStat has been using the internal implementating rules for the international cooperation activities. Existing internal implementing rules have been revised. (In the scope of central organization, statistics-based work processes were taken into consideration and departments were re-established within a manageable scale. Task definitions of departments and groups were codified with respect to the newly established structure. In order to enable the initiation of the implementation of new methods in current studies and to provide efficiency of the studies to be performed, arrangements were made in organizational structure of TurkStat. Besides, workload of main service units and number of personnel are all arranged so as to enable better management of studies requiring expertise at department level.)

Good Practices Sound monitoring mechanisms: Project based monitoring - prior to the activity & following the activity (immediate /6 monthly) Compliance based monitoring - Data Availability exercise (compendium based) - monitoring of LPR improvement actions (twice a year) Strong commitment of TurkStat Management to international cooperation: President of TurkStat elected as Vice President of Bureau of the CES under UNECE in June 2013 A significant step towards strengthening the Turkish Statistical System and inclusion of all stakeholders into the system by expanding the Council’s structure was realized. Data Availability is based on last version Compendium for each year. This study is more or less similar to SMIS+ exercise; however, main difference is that DA is much more detailed and comprehensive than SMIS+.

Conclusion/Remarks International Relations Department act as a bridge between national stakeholders and international organisations The coordination function of the office is also crucial to avoid duplications of funding from several donors. TurkStat’s double role: not only adopting the best practices from European Union but also sharing that of her own

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