According to the Public Relations and International Affairs Office of the State Welfare Organization of Iran, Seyed Javad Hosseini, head of the organization, issued a message on the occasion of Statistics and Planning Day. The full text of his message is as follows:
Statistics and planning are far more than administrative necessities or organizational obligations. They are the language through which social realities are expressed and the foundation for informed decision-making aimed at achieving justice, improving service quality, and enhancing citizens’ social well-being. At the State Welfare Organization of Iran, which bears the vital responsibility of supporting vulnerable groups, empowering individuals, and promoting social health, accurate, reliable, and timely data constitute a strategic asset for identifying needs, prioritizing interventions, and evaluating the effectiveness of policies.
Today, moving beyond traditional management models toward modern approaches that embrace transformative shifts and the use of artificial intelligence is an unavoidable necessity for responding effectively to complex social challenges. These shifts include moving from decisions based on individual perceptions to evidence-based decision-making; from uniform, one-size-fits-all approaches to interventions tailored to the actual needs of target populations; from focusing solely on service delivery to measuring outcomes and effectiveness; and from fragmented information management to integrated and intelligent data governance.
Achieving these transformations requires the establishment of a coherent system for generating, processing, analyzing, and utilizing high-quality data at every level of the organization.
In this regard, transforming the State Welfare Organization into a data-driven organization is not merely a technological choice; it represents a fundamental change in managerial thinking, organizational culture, and the governance of social affairs. A data-driven organization accurately identifies present-day needs, intelligently anticipates future trends, and directs its resources and capacities toward the most effective interventions on the basis of reliable evidence. Such an organization regards the quality of official statistics, the standardization of definitions and concepts, the integration of information systems, and the establishment of a statistical quality management system as essential pillars of transparency, accountability, and public trust.
Within the framework of the neighborhood-based approach and the successful delivery of community-level social services, data assume even greater importance. Neighborhoods are where people’s actual needs emerge and social capital takes shape. However, accurately identifying the capacities, vulnerabilities, opportunities, and groups requiring support in each neighborhood is impossible without reliable data and spatial and social analysis.
Data serve as the bridge between understanding and action, creating the conditions for designing services tailored to the specific circumstances of each neighborhood, strengthening coordination among institutions, encouraging public participation, and directing resources toward clearly identified needs.
Likewise, social renewal can lead to meaningful and sustainable transformation only when problems are identified, interventions are designed, and outcomes are evaluated on the basis of evidence and the realities of people’s lives. Data enable us to go beyond counting the services delivered and monitor changes in quality of life, individual capabilities, social cohesion, and vulnerability. They also allow us to pursue the transition from providing assistance alone to achieving sustainable empowerment with greater confidence.
On this occasion, as we commemorate Statistics and Planning Day, I would like to express my appreciation for the valuable efforts of our colleagues working in statistics and data analytics, technical experts, statistical ambassadors, and all those involved in generating and safeguarding organizational data at both the national headquarters and provincial levels.
I firmly believe that the future of the State Welfare Organization depends on bringing together knowledge, data, planning, and a commitment to transformative change. This integration can help us use limited resources more effectively, deliver services more equitably, and ensure that social policies are more closely aligned with people’s actual needs.
“Together, we move forward toward a data-driven organization, empowered neighborhoods, and a society offering fairer opportunities for living, growing, and flourishing.”
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