Optimized approach for the censuses : AFRISTAT’s interventions

1. Optimized approach for the censuses : AFRISTAT’s interventions Presented by : Dorothee Ouissika Expert in institutionnal organisation of statistical systems - AFRISTAT Accra, Ghana – 3-7 december 2007

2. Presentation’s Content • Introduction : • Emergence of the poverty problem and requests for statistical data • Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) for 2006-2010 • I- Démographic and social statistics in ASPA • Objective • Planned Activities • Outcome

3. Presentation’s Content (continued) II –Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT • Principles • Objectives • Activities III-Implementations Conclusion

4. Introduction Emergence of poverty problems and requests for statistical data • The issue of the monitoring and evaluation of poverty created an important and demanding request for statistical data particularly in the social field • Requirement for the geographical level and for space and temporal comparison • Information at the smallest geographical level is increasingly Iequired • The population and housing census (PHC) is the fundamental source of demographic and social statistics, that which provides the information at the smallest geographical level.

5. Introduction Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) 2006-2010 • AFRISTAT having been in charge, since 2003, of the UNDP support program for the development of information systems for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of poverty reduction strategies (PRS) and millenium development goals (MDGs), dedicated a chapter to this subject in its ASPA 2006-2010 • Sub-programme 2 of ASPA thus consists in providing support to the countries in this domain

6. I – Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) 2006-2010 Objectives • One of the objectives of sub-programme 2 of ASPA is to participate in the design of cost-effective methodologies for collecting and processing demographic data from surveys and censuses, including civil status, and assisting Member States in their implementation

7. I – Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) 2006-2010 Planned activities • Participation of AFRISTAT in preparing the 2010 census round; • Popularizing manuals and guides on PHCs and on the use of civil status data; • Organizing seminars and workshops on the practice of PHCs and the use of civil status data; • Providing technical support to States on organizing PHCs and on the use civil status data

8. I – Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) 2006-2010 Outcome • The participation to meetings on population and housing censuses (PHCs) and particulary the UNSD workshop held in Bamako on November 6-9 2006, allowed AFRISTAT to be in contact with national and international actors on these operations • During these meetings, AFRISTAT was able to gather findings on the situation of censuses in sub-saharan Africa

9. OPTIMIZED APPROACH I – Demographic and social statistics in AFRISTAT Strategic Plan of Activities (ASPA) 2006-2010 Reports • Recuring difficulties to mobilise financial ressources; • Institutionnal weaknesses (still insufficient planning, heavy questionnaires, insufficient capitalization, insufficiency on covering the land register thus requiring significant resources for the cartography …); • Timid use of certain technical innovations; • Impossibility of setting up alternative approaches of the PHCs (in the short run)

10. II. Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT Principles • To benefit from the elaboration processes of National strategies for the development of statistics (NSDS), in particular from the strategic approach to reach an optimal adequation between means and purposes and an overall coherence by considering the specific context of each country; Objectives • Costs optimization; • Optimization of information usefulness; Activities • To set up a data collection program • To improve the information requests management; • To continue the cartographic activities between censuses; • To progressively improve the quality of administrative sources;

11. II. Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT Set up of a data collection program • Improves the use of data from censuses; • Rational use of the resources; Improvement of information requests management • Identification and analysis of the information requests in order to establish their priorities; • Elimination of information that can be obtained from surveys or other data sources within the famework of the data collection program;

12. II. Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT Improvement of information requests management • Dialog among statistics producers and between statistics producers and users to make arbitrations for • selection of topics • useful and relevant • according to the Principles and recommendations of United Nations. • elimination of topics • irrelevant in terms of methodology and/or requiring too much skills from the agents; • requiring too complicated specific dispositions whose information can be reasonably obtained with more details and precisions from other sources (surveys, administrative...)

13. II. Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT Continuation of cartographic activities between censuses • To draft and implement efficient methodologies to regularly and/or permanently update surveys databases, specifically in urban areas; • To have recent enough data available between censuses to alleviate pressures; • To reduce the heavy pressures of the cartographic phase in terms of ressources and programmation; • To organise and manage geographical information systems (GIS) as well as to elaborate and maintain the wide sample are the core tasks of this concern

14. II. Optimization of censuses by AFRISTAT Progressive improvement of administrative sources • To keep registries or other adminitrative sources following appropriate caracteristics, definitions and classification; • To improve cover; • A medium-term censuses improvement factor in the way that these sources can provide more appropriate information on population in some areas; • They are, for subsaharan countries, an essential condition for the appropriation of alternative approaches to tradiational census

15. III. Implementations Progressive improvement of administrative sources • Support to some member States to reactivate the processing of civil registry data • In Gabon, AFRISTAT contributed to the elaboration of a project awaiting financing that is made up of: i) a survey on civil registry cover ; ii) a survey on civil registry structures ; iii) a survey to the electied representatives and ministries in charge of the civil registry. This study will identify the civil registry’s dysfunctions, provide recommandations to the concerned ministries and launch processing of data; • In Senegal, the Agence nationale de la Statistique et de la démographie in collaboration with the Centre national d’état civil, and with the support of AFRISTAT, prepared a diagram of information transfert, data collection tools and a diagnostic on the civil registry in order to reactivate the processing of teh data;

16. III. Achievements Continuation of cartographic activities between censuses • Elaboration of the methodology for the implementation of a wide sample in Benin. It has not yet been deployed for lack of financing; • Programmation of a seminar on census cartography in 2008

17. Conclusion The censuses optimisation approach proposed by AFRISTAT stems from a new reading of the difficulties linked to censuses organisation and to the overall situation of national statistical systems. It derives from its strong involvement in the strengthening of the NSS statistical capacities and its good knowledge of teh statistical organisation within the member States. This approach should have considerable consequences on the vision of census, the mobilisation of financing and the coordination of statistics.

18. Thank you for your kind attention