1. In its second meeting
the Working Party recommended1:
Recognizing the importance of the influence
of policy and decision makers in prioritization
for budget allocations, the Working Party recommended
that an awareness package could be prepared
and that its content should stress the importance
and purpose of census taking including the necessity
of making available census data quickly go the
users. The content of the package could focus
on strategies and application of technology
in the various phases of census operations with
a focus on speed processing and timely dissemination
of census data. The package should be in the
form of a short video with supporting documents,
which should be made available for the 2000
round of censuses.
2. An evaluation team for the 'ESCAP Asia-Pacific
Population Programme as funded by UNFPA during
the period 1996-1998' took this recommendation
unchanged over in its report2,
what may be considered as an encouragement to
give high priority to this task.
3. The Statistical Institute for Asia and the
Pacific (SIAP) was asked to take the supervision
for the production of this awareness package,
recognizing, however, that the input of the
material has to be provided by the countries
undertaking the projects3.
Since the time appears to be sufficiently advanced
for having enough input-potentiality, SIAP proposes
to proceed as described in the annexed project
description. After review of the project by
the Working Party, SIAP will undertake the necessary
actions for a timely delivery of the awareness
package according to the guidelines given by
the Working Party.
4. In the next paragraphs some 'general considerations'
and some specific questions are brought under
the attention of the Working Party.
- Problem definition
Decision makers responsible for the approval
and financing of statistical population surveys
(censuses and samples) are either not aware
of the existence, the potential benefits and
costs savings or the 'accessibility'
of the new, emerging technologies. Implementation
of these technologies require substantial
investments not only in technical infrastructure
but also (and especially) in human resources
(like the enhancement of own staff by training
and education). Useful investments are not
(or not timely) made and many population surveys
are, consequently, carried out in a less efficient
way. The basic reason for the 'unawareness'
is not the availability on information but
more the overflow on (complicated) documentation
in combination with several kinds of 'commercial
pressure' by resellers and others.
- Objective
The objective of the awareness package
is to convince the 'decision makers' on the
cost-effectiveness of the investments in the
new technologies by giving simple examples
of successful applications and by providing
unprejudiced information. Thus, the 'messages'
to be brought over are:
- by investing in new
technologies one may get more timely,
more liable and better accessible results
from population censuses and other population
surveys;
- relatively low investments
in technology may already lead to substantial
costs savings and other benefits;
- since the development
of human resources is very time consuming,
early decisions are recommendable.
- Target group
The target group, as indicated by the
Working Party, are the 'decision makers' and
the important data users (who may influence
the decisions) in the region. The marketing
strategy towards this international 'audience'
may effect the contents, the media to be used
and the lay out of the awareness package.
Some relevant questions to be answered in
this respect, are the following:
- should the package
have only an international (ESCAP) status
or should some space to be reserved for
specific, national information (like reference
to national information sources)?
- is English the only
language to be used or should the package
contain the potentially of 'dubbing over'
in national languages?4
- Media
The media to be used have to be seen in function
of the target group; since the focus is on
the managers-group, the information has to
be short and to-the-point, while the availability
of written 'reminders' or reference-material
on paper could also be adequate.
The original idea was to develop a video presentation
of 10 minutes (tentatively). If funds are
available SIAP will consider on a longer perspective
the following additional possibilities:
- the development of
a multimedia presentation that can be
downloaded via Internet (and may be recorded
on video) and -eventually- can be made
available on CD-ROM;
- a small brochure
(8 pages A5 tentatively) with factual
information, containing the same information
elements as the presentation, but with
additional explanations and source references
(for instance: reference to the guidelines
of the Working Party).
The disadvantage of the Internet package could,
of course, be the necessity of access to Internet
and the appropriate browser applets, but -on
the other hand- selling new technology and only
using 'old' methods looks like a 'contradictio
in terminis'.
- Broad outlines of the
contents
Some first ideas of the outlines of the
multimedia presentation or video:
Introduction: spoken message (for instance
by ESCAP Executive Secretary) on the importance
of timely results from population censuses
and other statistical population surveys and
underlining the importance of application
of (available) technology which may help to
reach effective results in this field (40
seconds)
Introductory explanation: a visualization
of the underlying statistical process to be
considered: data capture, processing of data
and dissemination of statistics (40 seconds)
Visualized examples of application of
new technology: explaining the technology
and the consequences for the statistical process
(each 160 seconds)
- GIS;
- Imaging and data capture;
- new dissemination technology
like for instance Internet and 'electronic
publications'.
Conclusions: concluding message ('we
only showed some examples but roven benefits
with regard to: costs, throughput-time and
reliability; for further information .................')
(40 seconds)
5. As concluding remarks SIAP asks the attention
for the following two points. The first point
is the fact that in the foregoing paragraphs
only some first ideas for the package
are oulined. All comments and suggestions of
the members of the Working Party are, of course,
welcome and will be taken into account as much
as possible. The second point is that the success
of the awareness package depends for a substantial
part on the input and material delivered by
the countries undertaking the projects. The
contents of the package has to be considered
as falling under a joint responsibility. The
continuation of the existing good cooperation
seems to be indispensable.
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