1. Policy Group on Statistical Cooperation 30-31 October 2014, Antalya
Good practices for departments of international cooperation

2. Background
MGSC has discussed the mandate and tasks of international cooperation departments (ICD) of NSIs since some years
MGSC March 2014 – a proposal was put forward to compile a list or a handbook of good practices for work in the ICD
Eurostat has now made a first draft of a handbook of good practices
A Handbook on Good Practices could inspire other stakeholders
A Handbook on Good Practices would help staff at ICD to learn from each other
A Handbook on Good Practices would give examples of practices that have made the work of ICD in other countries efficient and successful

3. What is the purpose? Eurostat has contact with all the ICDs
ICDs are usually very small and do not always have a critical mass
The objective is to spread the use of good practices to other countries
In times of scarce resources it is useful to learn from each other
Intended users of the Handbook are ICDs and similar units in NSIs of:
EU member states
EFTA countries
Enlargement countries
Potentially other countries (ENP and beyond)

4. How was the handbook compiled?
Collection of examples from minutes and presentations of meetings
Developing a template to collect further information
Contacting the ICD of relevant countries
Categorising the different practices

5. What is a good/best practice
A method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means
A method or technique that is used as a benchmark.
A method or technique that could be useful for another NSI
A method or technique used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use.
A practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered.

6. Template to describe the practices
Title
Category
Description of the good practice
Why it is a good practice / what are the objectives of this good practice
Comments and additional information

7. Categories of good practices
Strategic documents and Mandate for International/Statistical Cooperation
Coordination (two-way communication with a requirement for action)
Donor coordination
Coordination of the national statistical system
Communication (mainly one-way to spread knowledge and information)
Intranet, Internet
Publications, newsletters
Project-related activities (management of IPA and other projects)
Monitoring of EU acquis (data availability, data transmission)
Training

8. Questions for discussion
1. What are your expectations for such a handbook?
2. What do you think about the structure and proposed content?
3. What do you consider a good practice?
4. What kind of other good practices could you propose?
5. How would you describe a good practice – is more information than in the templates needed?