Towards a Census Resource and Training Centre (CR&TC)

1. Towards a Census Resource and Training Centre (CR&TC) Sathyanarayana K.M., UNFPA India Presented at the NAACA Conference Bali, Indonesia November 23-25, 2011

2. Preliminary considerations • Elements of diagnosis provided here are preliminary observations based on initial dialogue • “Census” is used here as a shortcut to refer to all activities under the purview of the ORGI: Population census, regular and other surveys, data compilation, etc. • Preliminary document by US Census Bureau

3. Elements for a preliminary diagnosis

4. The nodal position of the CRTC Internal Training International Training Dissemination

5. Comparing Census Organizations and Resources

6. Rapid diagnosis: internal training needs • The changing demography of the Census office • Regular flow of new recruits in the Census organization (National Office and State directorates) • Gradual attrition of senior staff and limited inter-division mobility • Undocumented individual expertise of senior staff and limited mobility across divisions • Accumulated experience may be lost with the departure of senior staff • Absence of dedicated training division • Little incentive towards teaching activities

7. Rapid diagnosis: internal training needs • Anticipated changes in census technology and focal activities • ICR, hand-held devices, GPS, growing availability of spatial information • Greater staff availability during inter-censal periods

8. Rapid diagnosis: international exchanges • Regular visits by foreign delegations with ad hoc presentations • Interest expressed in specific areas of census expertise such as GIS, ICR, PES, etc. • Accumulation of undocumented experience in data collection and processing • Limited international exposures of the staff • Consultancies, study tours, international meetings • Absence of training modules of international standards • Limited cross-institutional learning (within and outside country) and sharing

9. Rapid diagnosis: data dissemination • Growing need for basic, detailed and customized data • Linking of housing data with population enumeration data • Facilitating historical analysis by adjusting jurisdictional changes/redistricting of administrative areas • Need for an integrated storage and retrieval system for historical census data

10. Rapid diagnosis: data dissemination • Growing diversity of users and needs: • academics and students: micro-data, basic tables, historical reports etc. • decision makers, NGOs: basic tables, rapid analysis, census documentation, thematic maps linked to GIS • School children and educationists : teaching materials (mathematics, geography, economics etc.), child-friendly tables and analysis • Newspersons: press-room, rapid analysis, briefs, census documentation • Local authorities, NGOs: local data and rapid analysis, PCA data • Use of social media (Facebook/Twitter etc)

11. Areas of further investigations

12. Evaluation tools: Comparative review • Countries covered • Large and rich countries: USA, Brazil, Russia, China, Indonesia, France, Japan • Main demographic data providers: UN Population Division, UNFPA, PRB, Eurostats • SAARC countries • Domains covered • Census organization and training resources • Nature, formats and quantity of resources, data, maps and other population-related materials shared online • Categories of data users targeted

13. Evaluation tools: internal training needs • Survey of the census staff • Age and sex structure of the Census office by category and division • Recent and anticipated recruitment flows: gains and losses • Survey of needs and competencies • Mobility of census staff (within and outside) and training programmes attended in the past three years • Training capacities and gaps: present staff, former staff, external trainers • Career development, progression avenues and sense of ownership • Major training modules to be developed: census tasks (present and emerging), analysis and dissemination

14. Evaluation tools: international exchanges • Number of recent visits, composition of delegation, nature of specific requests and exchanges (technological watch) • Potential needs among Asian/S-S and other statistical agencies • Survey of needs • Experiences of other national institutions conducting international programmes • Training modules and organizational linkages to be developed

15. Evaluation tools: data dissemination • Cataloguing the existing documentation and on-line access of historical and current data: • e-archiving of old census reports and maps • Materials already distributed on the websites • Other documentation (available with the census or outside) to be scanned or digitized • Institutional memory • Identifying needs • Website statistics (most demanded pages and files) • Identifying formats and platforms • Usual tables, reports (PDF, XLS) and maps on websites • Micro data (anonymized) in data centers • Quick tabs, census briefs and monographs • Press materials • Educational materials for school teachers • Data for local users

16. Identifying synergies in capacity building Training CRTC International Relations Dissemination and Communication

17. Road map • Priority areas for capacity building-enhancement and reinforcement • Internal capacity building towards training, dissemination, and communication • Modalities for identifying experts and institutions for training purposes • Institutional adjustment (if internal resources are to be used) • Priority domains and formats for increased dissemination • Work stations for research on micro-data • Priority areas for international training

18. Present Status • International assessment for potential demand has been completed with the help of APRO • Nine countries in the region have responded • Internal assessment and data analysis completed • Draft report is being put together and will be available by the mid of December, 2011

19. Potential Demand from International Assessment • Networking of census organizations • Forum for knowledge sharing • Thematic areas for training: • Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) • Cartography and GIS Mapping • Data processing • Training on demographic analysis • Training on population projections and • Training on gender tabulation and analysis • Data dissemination and development of products including thematic mapping using GIS

20. Next Steps • Finalizing the CRTC technical report • Initiating the management aspects of the study • Supporting the e-archiving of census documents, micro-films and micro-fiches already initiated by IIPS, Mumbai (completed up to 1941 census) • Feasibility study on data warehousing and mining • Helping ORGI in developing a basic and advanced training module on demography and data interpretation for enhancing capacity of staff members

21. Thank you Acknowledgement Christophe Guilmoto Ena Singh Chinmoy Chakravorty Suman Parshar