Suggested changes to P&R regarding census planning and methodology

1. Suggested changes to P&R regarding census planning and methodology Presentation by David Yenukwa Kombat Ghana Statistical Service 26 March, 2014

2. Purpose • The purpose of the presentation is to highlight some suggested changes to the P&R that would help to make it more useful especially to African countries that will be taken part in the 2020 Round of PHC • The presentation will cover; -organisation/census operations -use of technology in census operations (mapping, data collection, processing)

3. Institution to be response for the conduct of a population census • Strong recommendation for national statistical offices to be responsible for population and housing censuses in their countries -Reasons • In most developing countries, the National Statistical Office (NSO) coordinates the National Statistical System (NSS). It will therefore be relatively easier to mobilise resources (human and material)from other agencies within the NSS in support of the census. • Experience gained by staff of the NSO in gathering, analysing and disseminating data will be brought to bear in the census operations. By so doing, future censuses will benefit from the experience and institutional memory existing at the NSO.

4. Coordination of the Census • It must be recommended that heads of NSO’s should appoint someone else to lead in the census process • The benefits are that the head of the NSO will have time to attend to other important issues relating to his office but of course paying greater attention to the census work. This recommendation was contained in the P&R for 2010 round. But we still had some heads of NSO’s who coordinated the census of their countries to the detriment of other important functions of their offices.

5. Involvement of stakeholders • Politicians-parliamentarians and political parties • Traditional leaders, • Civil society groups, and • Local authorities should be involved in the census, especially in publicity/education, enumeration and dissemination.

6. Time of the year to conduct a census • Due to climate change, the time of the year to undertake census enumeration should not only be based on past experiences, but also on current climatic conditions.

7. Census operations- Budgeting for censuses • Under financial basis for censuses: The recommendation that all census operations including planning, enumeration, analysis and dissemination, be budgeted from the beginning and efforts made to mobilize the required funds (Page 25 of P&R Rev. 2) need to be reconsidered. -Reasons • some donor agencies do not indicate early enough which part of the census they would want to fund • Government may be reluctant to approve of the census budget if it is found to be huge due to the inclusion of certain activities, e.g. post census mapping and the preparation of certain thematic reports. This could lead to delays in the start of some preparatory activities and may eventual lead to the non-conduct of the census.

8. Census operations- Budgeting for censuses • Countries should consider reducing reliance on donor assistance since censuses are legally the responsibility of national governments. • Countries should be encouraged to explore ways of establishing census-funding partnerships with the private sector and civil society groups. In the case of Ghana 2010 Census, the private sector contributed significantly in the area of publicity.

9. Census operations- mapping • Time to create EA maps: Undertaking census mapping too early has the risk of generating enumeration area maps that may be outdated at the time of census enumeration. However, due to the slow release of funds to census offices by some governments,it is recommended that the mapping is started early enough and provision made to revisit the areas that were mapped early for any updates.

10. Census operations- mapping • The main reason for revisiting some of the already mapped areas is that, in fast growing areas, some of the enumeration area maps produced earlier in the mapping exercise may become outdated at the time of census due to construction of more dwelling units some of which take short time to be completed. This is particularly so in developing countries. Enumerators assign to such areas are usually unable to complete enumeration within the specified enumeration period.

11. Some challenges associated with field cartographic work • Some countries field cartographic personnel not getting the needed cooperation from communities leaders due to boundary disputes arising from lack of collaboration among boundary delimitation agencies: • Electoral offices-create electoral areas ; • Census offices-create enumeration areas; • Local government authorities-create administrative areas • Traditional authorities- have traditional jurisdictions • National survey departments- responsible for the production maps

12. The issues • Non-coincidence of traditional and administrative boundaries. Traditional Authorities prefer that administrative boundaries should coincide with the traditional jurisdictions/boundaries- ownership of land and traditional allegiance. Chiefs are usually not happy that their subjects are divided between administrative units and that natural resources in their traditional areas are used to develop other areas. Some of them perceive that their people may no longer pay allegiance to them. • Non-coincidence of enumeration areas with electoral areas • Lack of capacity of national survey offices to produce maps (due partly to lack of funds)

13. The recommendation • Greater collaboration among the institutions responsible for the delimitation of boundaries: administrative, electoral and census enumeration areas, as well as adequate consultation with traditional authorities and national survey offices.

14. Use of technology in census mapping • Hand-drawn maps verses GIS-which way to go. • Recognising that digitized maps play a very important role in the dissemination of census results, country’s should be encouraged to use GIS in census mapping. • Digitized maps can be used for various purposes- e.g. in data dissemination and targeting in the case of disasters. • GIS contribution to the development of geography statistics / geo referencing cannot be over emphasized.

15. Census tests • Even though there is a recommendation in the 2010 P&R requesting countries to test all the activities of a census, not all countries adhered to this advice. It is recommended that UNSD should think of setting up a task force to monitor the implementation of census programmes from the planning stage through enumeration, data processing and dissemination of results. In this way, countries would be guided at each stage to adhere to the recommendations as much as possible. This could be done with the collaboration of UNFPA

16. Technology in census enumeration • Use of PDAs where possible- cost, local conditions in terms of energy to charge batteries, etc. • Use of telephone and internet in supervision and monitoring of census enumeration.

17. Use of technology in data processing • Modern technologies of data capture (OMR, OCR/ICR) should be recommended despite its associated challenges. The recommendation is to decide on the technology to use for data capture early enough so that it can be tested in the pilot census. • The size of a country in terms of its population should not be the determining factor. • Paper grammage of questionnaires and control forms should be determine in the case where the provider of the technology is different from the company contracted to print the census forms.

18. Use of technology in dissemination • CD ROMs, DVDs, sms text messaging, etc • Hard copies still very important for dissemination- low cost of publications • Use of internet and web-base • Power point presentations in workshop and seminars across the countries particularly in remote areas. • Use of traditional technology such as radio and television to enhance substantial dissemination coverage.

19. Thank you for your attention