EFTA and Statistics Iceland offer online training in R to EFTA partner countries in the Mediterranean region

The course followed the Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) in combination with R. The GSBPM is a standard framework and terminology that explains all the steps needed to produce official statistics. In other words, it helps improve and modernise how official statistics are produced.

The online course was offered to EFTA’s free trade partners in the EU Neighbourhood Policy South region. Twenty-five statistical experts from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia participated.

The main objective of the course was to show how R can be used to analyse official statistics. It focused on methods for cleaning, organising and presenting data using a range of tools available in R, emphasising how the programme can support the validation of data and ensure high data quality and reliability for statistical analysis. 

EFTA provided Arabic translations of all the learning materials and simultaneous English-Arabic-English interpretation for the live sessions. Feedback from the participants was very positive, highlighting the importance and timeliness of the course and the high-quality learning materials compiled by Statistics Iceland.

The R course is part of EFTA’s technical cooperation work programme in the field of statistics for 2026, which was approved in January 2026 by the EFTA Council. The overarching objective of the programme is to foster the development, production and dissemination of relevant, timely and comparable official statistics in EFTA partner countries to support economic cooperation.