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

2. 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.

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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 ( )
USST Programme Phase II ( )
USST Programme Phase III ( )

8. 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

9. 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+)

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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)

13. 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 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.)

14. 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+.

15. 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

16. THANK YOU…