A regional workshop on “Visibility of statistics and relations with users” was organised in Athens on 22-23 March 2017 by the EU-funded MEDSTAT IV project. It was a unique opportunity for high level statisticians from the statistical offices of the Southern Mediterranean countries to confront the tools they developed to reach out their users with the needs and requirements from these users.

Journalists, researchers and programmes officers from Euro-MED programmes and initiatives told the statisticians their part of the story, illustrating the relations they experienced with statistics and statisticians with concrete examples. They called for more open and transparent relations and for more easy-to-read, easy-to understand statistical products. They urged for developing collaborative works and for multiplying “co-productions” between them and the statisticians, each partner bringing in a common outcome its own perspective and technicality, thus enriching this outcome.

The statisticians answered with promises to engage more with their users, to improve their capacities for attractive dissemination and genuine dialogue and to re-think their production process at the light of the demand from the users. They also acknowledged the dramatic changes that have been brought to traditional dissemination and data accessibility tools with the rapid development of the social media. They asked the MEDSTAT IV project to support their efforts in designing and implementing more comprehensive and articulated communication strategies that could encompass the various aspects of the relations with the users discussed during the workshop. They also highlighted their need for better mastering new techniques of data visualisation that may be useful for various dissemination channels such as interactive web-sites and mobile applications.

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Press release

MEDSTAT IV website