Page 475 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS355 Jean-Louis B.
3. Presentation of some issues concerning official statistics that have
marked the life of the ISI for the past five decades
This chapter does not purport to comprehensively cover all areas of
intercourse between the ISI and official statistics, but illustrates some of these
interactions.
3.1. The ISI General Assembly convened during the 41 ISI Session in Delhi,
st
India, in 1977, established a Committee on Future Directions. This committee,
chaired by Joseph Duncan presented its report [5] during the 42 session in
nd
12
Manila, Philippines. They made the main following recommendations:
i. The fundamental mission of the ISI will be to serve as the premier
international academy of statisticians with a special focus on asserting
a highly professional and moral tone on statistical issues of wide-
spread public interest and in promoting the development of the
professions.
ii. The ISI of the future will regard the integration of statistics as one of
its major objectives
13
iii. The ISI will create search committees in an effort to extend its
membership to the developing countries end thereby broaden the
geographic representation of its membership.
iv. The professional competence of the ISI membership will be utilized in
service to international organizations, national governments and
others through an organized program of research and development
and consultation, and the creation of the International Center for
Research and Development in Statistics.
v. Statistical education and training will continue to be a major role of the
ISI in the future: the major focus of such activity will shift from the
developed to the developing countries.
vi. ISI will undertake regional programs to expend its influence in the
developing regions of the world and to recognize the specific needs of
the individual regions.
vii. ISI will seek to strengthen its sections and integrate their programs into
the whole fabric of the Institute.
viii. ISI will seek to strengthen its relationship to national statistical societies
and ensure that there is a minimum of overlap or duplication in the
functions of professional societies at the national and international
level.

12 Joe Duncan was in 1977 – 1979 director of the Office of Federal Statistical Policy and
Standards, at the US Department of Commerce.
13 An ad-hoc committee on the integration of statistics was established during the 40th
session in Warsaw in 1975 and presented its conclusions in the same time as those of the
Committee on Future Directions in Manila.
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