Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Hissein Brahim Taha stressed that statistics play a crucial role in making sound decisions on policy issues, and assessing the impact of social and economic policies. In his speech at the opening of the 13th session of the OIC Statistical Committee, which began today in Ankara, Trkiye, Taha praised the committee's effort to bring together senior statisticians from OIC member states to design an action plan to improve the production and publication of reliable vital statistics about member states. The committee reviewed the activities it has carried out since the last session held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in October 2023. It also reviewed the implementation of its 2021-2025 plan of action and the role of comprehensive data collection in social protection, data source ethics, and new technologies. The committee also tackled the monitoring of indicators for Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger, preparing a report on it, using machine le arning and AI in official statistics, and the 2020 round of the global population and housing census program. Source: Saudi Press Agency