International Cooperation

The activities of International Cooperation are aimed at enhancing the quality and comparability of official BH statistics, i.e. increasing compliance with EU and UN standards.

As set out in Article 8 of the Law on Statistics of BiH, paragraph 2, “the Agency shall:

• perform international representation and co-operation with organisations and other bodies and carry out Bosnia and Herzegovina’s international responsibilities in the field of statistics;
• establish and maintain contacts with the donor community and propose the distribution of the donations for the Agency and Entity Institutes in accordance with the donor’s expressed preferences or if there are no preferences in accordance with the Statistical Programme.“

The Agency represents the statistical system of BiH, which includes the Entity Institutes (the Institute for Statistics of FBiH and the Institute for Statistics of Republika Srpska), in interactions with all international partners and coordinates the agreed activities within the statistical system. In interactions with the international partners, the Agency, at the same time represents both Entity institutions that are integral parts of the statistical system of BiH and coordinates activities within the statistical system.

The most important activities are implemented through technical assistance projects funded by various donors since the establishment of the Agency: EU, Sida, IMF, World Bank, relevant UN organizations (UNECE, UNSD, UNFPA, and UNICEF), governments of Italy and Germany, DFID and others. 

Lately, the most relevant systematic support is provided by EU trough IPA funds and is implemented through national and multi-beneficiary projects. The implementation of the projects is of crucial interest for statistical institutions in BiH, as they result in the growth of data produced and better compliance of BH statistics with EU standards. Through the implantations of the projects, more specific results are achieved.