Dear Reader,

Turkish Statistical System functions according to the Statistical Law issued on 18 November 2005, which defines the roles and responsibilities of all the organiza-tions included in the system. Before this date, Turkey lacked of a modern and integrated legal base which allows realizing structural reforms required for European integration.

During the preparation stage for the new law, “Fundamental Principles of Offi-cial Statistics” and “European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP)” were the main documents which became the reference for our Law. Both of these documents include a set of principles which lead to usage of standards for developing, pro-ducing and disseminating statistics. Current Statistical Law of Turkey has been prepared in line with these principles referred in both documents.

However, the existence of legal infrastructure does not always correspond to smooth practices. The implementation of the CoP follows a voluntary self-regulatory approach. Eurostat initiated a tool for assessing progress, entitled “ESS Peer Reviews”, to investigate the status of implementation of CoP in any country.

In this issue of “Statistics at CrossRoads”, we intended to present basic features of Peer Review and Turkey’s experience on peer review missions both for the first round in 2011 and the second round in November 2015.

Aside from Peer Review Activity, TurkStat has also had a busy agenda in the second half of the year 2015 regarding international cooperation.TurkStat kept on conducting cooperation activities with many countries. managers and other staff in TurkStat have participated in several meetings and conferences.

Moreover, in this issue, we continue to introduce our staff members attending to traineeship programmes in statistical offices of EU Countries. This time, we give information about traineeship in Central Statistical Office of Poland.

We wish you a pleasant reading time with this new issue.

EDITORIAL

December 2015 Issue 6

Statistics at CrossRoads

Inside this issue:

Contact us Phone:

+903124100410 E-mail:

internationalrelations@tuik.gov.tr

Conference of Euro-

pean Statisticians

CES) Bureau

2

37. IATUR Confer-

ence on Time Use

Research

2

The Meeting of Pol-

icy Group on Statis-

tical Cooperation

3

The 101st DGINS Conference

3

Peer Review—Turkey’s Experience

4

TurkStat contribu-tion in Kazakhstan Project

5

Service Component of the ICT Project

5

Multidimensional Poverty Peer Net-work Meeting 2015

6

Visit of Indonesia Delegation

6

Conference on Refu-gee Statistics

7

Traineeship in Sta-tistics Poland

8

9

Participation of TurkStat staff in international activi-ties

10

New Recruit in In-ternational Rela-tions Department of TurkStat

10

Who is Who 11

TurkStat International Relations Department

Conference of European Statisticians (CES) Bureau

Mr. Birol AYDEMİR, President of TurkStat and Ms. Şennur ONUR, Head of International Relations De-partment participated in the meeting of the Bureau of Conference of European Statisticians (CES) realised on 21-22 October 2015 in Geneva. The Bureau discussed the emerging issues, the latest developments in the UNECE Region and UNECE Statis-tical programme for 2016. Moreover, One of the two statistical issues subject to in-depth review, the Bureau conferred during the meeting was “Diversification of population census meth-odology and sources” and this in-depth review study was conducted based on the paper with the same headline prepared by experts of TurkStat and Statistics Finland. During the meeting, Mr. Aydemir specifically pointed out the importance of Strategic part-nerships with stakeholders in the information industry, mentioning that in the near future the nature of relations between national statistical offices and stakeholders will change to a great extent and this important issue should be handled right away both with regard to legal aspects and current structure of information industry. In this context, the Bureau suggested the organization of a conference on this issue gathering both official statisticians and representatives of private sector.

Page 2 Issue 6

37. IATUR Conference on Time Use Research

presented three proceedings and one poster statement. TurkStat conducted one pilot study in 1996 and first survey in 2006 regarding time use. Most re-cent study is the survey realized in 2014. The results of this survey will be announced in December 2015.

TurkStat contributed in 37. International Association for Time-Use Research (IATUR) Conference which was hosted by University of Ankara on 5-7 August 2015. The conference gathered many professionals and academicians both from Turkey and throughout the world. At the beginning of the Conference, TurkStat Vice President Mr. Enver TAŞTI underlined the impor-tance of providing information on time use and ex-pressed their contentment upon hosting the confer-ence in Ankara. Different dimensions of time use studies were han-dled in several sessions and TurkStat professionals

PGSC meeting, held once a year, is one of the high-est level meetings in the European Union Statistical System. The meeting is headed by Eurostat and par-ticipants are generally the heads of National Statisti-cal Institutes and directors responsible for Interna-tional Cooperation in statistical offices of member States and Enlargement Countries. This years’ meeting was focused on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the development of indicators for their measurement. The other topics were new round of peer reviews, compliance moni-toring, data collection and dissemination activities of Eurostat; implementation of the ESS Vision 2020 and implementation of multi-beneficiary and national cooperation programmes. TurkStat was represented by Mr. Enver TAŞTI, Vice President and Mr. Gürdal GEDİK, Head of Interna-tional Cooperation and EU Coordination Group.

Page 3 Statistics at CrossRoads

The Meeting of Policy Group on Statistical Cooperation (PGSC)

The 101st DGINS Conference

Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes (DGINS) Conference is annual platform where statistical programme, methods and processes for the production of community statistics are discussed by the Heads of National Statistical Offices. It is hosted each year by a different EU Member State and the chaired by the Director General of the host statistical office. Statistics Por-tugal hosted the 101st Conference in Lisbon on 25 September 2015. The theme of this year was “Indicators for decision making and monitoring”. The directors and the representatives of statistical offices of Member State and enlargement countries, international organizations like UNECE, OECD, EFTA, ECB and ESAC participated in the Conference where TurkStat was represented by Vice President Mr. Enver TAŞTI. The topic of the Conference encouraged very useful discussions on the relevance of indicators to take the appropriate decisions on a wide range of issues that dominate the agenda of today’s So-ciety.

Page 4 Issue 6

Peer Review—Turkey’s Experience

This second round was completed for ESS Member States in 2015. In the Strategic Information Meeting, carried out in Luxem-bourg on March 18, 2015, Turkey was decided to be the pilot coun-try for the second round of peer reviews for enlargement coun-tries. TurkStat, completed the Self-Assessment Stage on October 16, 2015 and then the peer review team visited Turkey on November

3-6, 2015. The team was led by Mr. Gerry O’Hanlon, former Director General of Irish Central Statistics Office. Ms. Pilar Martin-Guzman, Former Director of Instituto Nacional de Estadística of Spain (INE) and Mr. Ferenc Galik from Eurostat were the other members of the peer review team. Public authorities within Turkish Statistical System, non-governmental organisations, academi-cians, international organisations and media representatives have participated in meetings during the mentioned visit. Through these meetings, the peer review team tried to reveal strengths and weaknesses of the national statistical system. The peer review report which in-cludes suggestions and improvement actions with a specific timetable, has recently been re-ceived and currently being evaluated by TurkStat. Further information about CoP and ESS Peer Reviews can be found on Eurostat’s web site. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/peer-reviews

“Peer Review”, as a term, implies the assessments made by the same level professionals. The Peer Reviews are initiated by Eurostat to review the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP) in EU member and enlargement countries. Peer Review is a two-step process: Firstly, a Self-Assessment Questionnaire should be filled in by the Nas-tional Statistical Offices. The questionnaire contains inquiries about the existence of evidence for the com-pliance level to the principles of CoP in the statistical system of this country. This is specifically done with the help of indicators defined for 15 prin-ciples covering the institutional environment, the statistical production processes and the out-put of statistics. Eurostat conducted the first round of Peer Reviews in 2006-2008 for ESS Member States and also Eurostat and in 2011-2013 for the enlargement countries.

TurkStat contribution in Kazakhstan Project

Page 5 Statistics at CrossRoads

The key expert, Ms. Meltem KOCAMUSTAFAOĞULLARI acts as a long-term advisor to Turk-Stat during the life-time of the project. Thus far she realized introductory meetings with TurkStat project counterparts on various administrative and technical issues. The trainings and consultancy missions have just started after the approval of inception report by Central Financing and Contracting Unit on December 2, 2015.

“Strengthening the Information and Communi-cation Technologies Services of TurkStat” Pro-ject is being implemented by TurkStat since 2014. The project has a total budget of 6,2 mil-lion Euro and is financed under Instrument for Pre-Accession funding of EU for 2011 Program-ming year.

The project consists of two components. The first component, procurement of IT supplies to TurkStat has already been completed with the installment of products in TurkStat premises. The Service Contract was awarded to KMO Con-sortium which consists of KMO Consulting, AGEM and SOGETI from Luxembourg. The im-plementation period for this second component actually began in October 2015. Specialized trainings and consultancy services will be incor-porated under the project which will last 24 months.

TurkStat is the sub-contractor of the Worldbank Pro-ject “Strengthening the Statistical System of Kazakh-stan Statistical Office Project” which is being imple-mented by Federal Statistics Office of Germany since October 2012.

During the last 6 months four TurkStat experts went to Astana to render consultancy on the subjects of seasonal adjustment-time series, agricultural prices

Service Component of the ICT Project Commenced in October 2015

Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network Meeting 2015

Page 6 Issue 6

Visit of Indonesia Delegation

TurkStat welcomed a delegation of 10 experts from Statistical Office of Indone-sia on 8-11 September 2015. During the visit, various topics on official statistics; such as statistical processes, information technologies, data collection and quality checking, strategic planning and pro-gramming were discussed. The mission was completed with high satisfaction and both sides expressed their willing-ness to further continue cooperation.

The global Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) is a South-South initiative that supports policymakers to develop multidimensional poverty measures. It promotes the use of such measures for more effective poverty eradication efforts at the global, national and local levels.

Third Annual Meeting of the MPPN was hosted by Government of Colombia, in Cartagena on 2-3 June 2015. About 80 policymakers and senior officials came together to discuss and explore the different dimensions of poverty. The measurement of poverty was not the sole focus of the event. Besides, the participants also presented the efforts of the governments to reduce poverty, the challenges met and the results obtained.

TurkStat was represented by Mr. Enver TAŞTI, Vice President on the meeting. Mr. Taştı real-ized a presentation and briefly mentioned the motivation of Turkish Government regarding poverty measurement, past and recent studies handled in TurkStat together with the mone-tary and non-monetary dimensions of poverty indicators.

TurkStat hosted the Conference on Refugee Statistics

Page 7 Statistics at CrossRoads

At the 46thsession of the UN Statistical Commission (New York, 3-6 March 2015), Statistics Nor-way and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presented a joint report covering statistics on refugees and internally displaced persons together with a number of concrete suggestions. One suggestion was the organisation of an international con-ference to bring together the international organizations and experts from national statistical offices. Recognizing the importance of the topic, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) offered to host this conference in collaboration with Statistics Norway, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR. The International Conference on Refugee Statistics was held on 7 - 9 October in Antalya, Tur-key. It was attended by 57 participants who were the representatives of national statistical offices, offices dealing with the admission of foreigners and refugees, research institutions, United Nations agencies, the World Bank, and the European Asylum Support Office. The report of the Conference including the further actions to improve statistics on refugees and internally displaced persons will be presented in 47thsession of the UN Statistical Commis-sion on 8– 11 March 2016 .

Page 8 Issue 6

Traineeship in Statistical Office of Opole (Poland)

Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS) is one of our major partners regarding traineeships. Up to now, 13 TurkStat staff have participated in traineeship programmes in various departments and regional offices of Statistics Poland. Ms. Eylül POLAT had been a trainee in Statistical Office of Opole between 1 September 2015 and 27 November 2015, on the area of Price Statistics. Statistical Office in Opole belongs to the public statis-tics services subordinated to the President of the Central Statistical Office of Poland.

Opole is one of 16 Voivodships, which are basically the administrative divisions in Poland. The statistical offices established in Voivodships are part of the statistical system of Poland together with GUS. The voivodships’ statistical offices are specialized in some statistical areas. In this con-text, Statistical Office in Opole is dutied to complete the price statistics for whole Poland besides the data for its region.

Ms. Polat summarized below her experience in Statistical Office of Opole below:

What was the content of my job?

I was the first trainee who had ever come to Statistical Office in Opole and this was a new and efficacious experience for the both par-ties. I worked as a trainee in the Price Statis-tics Department of Statistical Office in Opole for three months. In Poland, there are 16 voivodeships each of which has its own spe-cialization area. Statistical Office in Opole specialized on price statistics. There were mainly two divisions in the office which are the price statistics department and survey department and also the auxiliary units as hu-man resources, information technology, ad-ministrative coordination and regional research departments.The general frame of my job was in order to be informed about how the price statistics are produced in Poland. I had the opportunity to follow all the work done and to be informed about the survey implementation, controlling and analyzing the price data. I made a presentation about price statistics and our organization in Turkey and took place in their presentations about all areas of price statistics. With my colleagues we compared Turkey and Poland implementations of surveys and we could discuss about the differences between them.

Traineeship in Statistical Office of Opole (Poland)

Page 9 Statistics at CrossRoads

I found the opportunity to examine all the steps of producing price statistics from the be-ginning of the survey to the publication that are managed from Statistical Office in Opole. I could see data collection methods and discuss about their efforts to improve these meth-ods which will contribute to our work. I learnt about the methodology Statistical Office in Opole uses for imputation of missing prices. I examined Eurostat recommendations for the work done and had the chance to see where they are on these recommendations. Besides that, for especially the retail prices, I was informed about the challenges of the regional offices about the coverage of the item bas-ket.

For the new study of scanner data project, I could learn about Poland implementations and found the chance of analyzing the Eurostat meeting feedbacks about other countries’ im-plementations and the Eurostat advices. Also I had the chance to learn about their reporting portal, Portal Sprawozdawczy, and to compare their portal with TurkStat’s portal so that I could learn some extra practical uses of the portal for the price surveys. Furthermore, to live in a European country for 3 months contributed a lot to my life as both culturally and socially.

The acquisitions of the Traineeship

Page 10 Issue 6

New Recruit in International Relations Department of TurkStat

Participation of TurkStat staff in international ac tivities

Fazilet had also been very busy for the rest of her college years. She participated in intern-ship programmes of Central Bank of the Tur-key and the Ministry of EU Affairs.

Her participation brought further dynamism to International Relations Department of TurkStat. We hope this step will contribute in her future career and wish success in her studies in TurkStat.

As of October 2015, we have a new team member in TurkStat International Relations Department. Ms. Fazilet GEÇGEL studied Interna-tional Relations at Hacettepe Univer-sity in 2010-2015. Whilst being a young, new graduate, Fazilet has some experiences abroad. During her university period she went to USA through the work and travel programme and she worked in a candy shop. At the second year of the college, she went to Greece via Erasmus pro-gramme and studied political science in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. There, she had the opportu-nity to observe how the European Sov-ereignty Crisis affected European peo-ple both in economic and social as-pects.

During the last six months, 103 TurkStat staff participated in 109 international activities, which is composed of 7 study visits, 73 meetings and work-shops, 17 training courses and 7 traineeship programmes. The meetings, workshops and seminars took place mostly in Eurostat on almost every sub-ject of official statistics.

The study visits were hosted by the statistical offices of several EU countries. We ap-preciate and send our grati-tude to our partner statistical offices in Europe, USA and Canada which organized ad-hoc courses, study visits and traineeships for TurkStat and welcomed our staff through this period.

Additionally, 7 TurkStat staff were assigned to consul-tancy services in Statistical Offices of Bangladesh, Mace-donia, Uganda and Kazakhstan.

In this period, the consultancy services provided by Turk-Stat were on agricultural statistics, non-sampling error in surveys, seasonal adjustment, agricultural prices and sur-veys.

Who is Who?

International Project Management Group

International Cooperation and EU Coordination Group

Enver TAŞTI

Vice President

Tel: +90 312 4100119

enver.tasti@tuik.gov.tr

Şennur ONUR

Head of International Relations De-partment

Tel: +90 312 4189761

sennur.onur@tuik.gov.tr

Alper GÜCÜMENGİL

Head of International Project Management Group

Tel: +90 312 4176445/164

alper.gucumengil@tuik.gov.tr

Gürdal GEDİK

Head of International Relations and EU Coordination Group

Tel: +90 312 4176445/165

gurdal.gedik@tuik.gov.tr

TURKISH STATISTICAL

INSTITUTE

Phone: +90 312-410 0410 Fax:+90 312-4253387

www.tuik.gov.tr

Devlet Mah. Necatibey cad. No:114 06420 Çankaya/Ankara

TURKEY

Metin EROL Expert +903124176445/207 metin.erol@tuik.gov.tr

Ebru ÇÖKMEZ Expert +903124176445/168 ebru.cokmez@tuik.gov.tr

Gözde ÖZTELLİ Expert +903124176445/207 gozde.oztelli@tuik.gov.tr

Osman ORHANLI Expert +903124176445/169 osman.orhanli@tuik.gov.tr

Betül TAŞDEMİR Expert +903124176445/169 betul.tasdemir@tuik.gov.tr

Çağatay IŞILAK Expert +903124176445/163 cagatay.isilak@tuik.gov.tr

Jale YELMEN Statistician +903124176445/168 jale.yelmen@tuik.gov.tr

Derya KOÇ Statistician +903124176445/207 derya.koc@tuik.gov.tr

Nuray KIZILBAYRAK Secretary +903124176445/126 nuray.kizilbayrak@tuik.gov.tr

Nilgün ÇELEBİOĞLU Expert +903124176445/219 nilgun.celebioglu@tuik.gov.tr

Şükrü ÇALLI Expert +903124176445/163 sukru.calli@tuik.gov.tr

Berna BAŞARAN Expert +903124176445/167 berna.ulgen@tuik.gov.tr

Neslihan ÖNCÜL Expert +903124176445/166 neslihan.oncul@tuik.gov.tr

Turgay ALTUN Expert +903124176445/207 turgay.altun@tuik.gov.tr

Serap GÖZEL Engineer +903124176445/167 serap.gozel@tuik.gov.tr

Halime ÖNDER Economist +903124176445/166 halime.onder@tuik.gov.tr

Fazilet GEÇGEL Assistant +903124176445/166 fazilet.gecgel@tuik.gov.tr

Deniz SAÇILIK Secretary +903124189761/166 deniz.sacilik@tuik.gov.tr