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This document has been issued without formal editing.
Introduction
The project on Application of New Technology
in Population Data Collection, Processing, Dissemination
and Presentation (RAS/96/P12) is being implemented
by the secretariat of the Economic And Social
Commission For Asia And The Pacific (ESCAP)
under funding support from the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA). Its implementation
was initiated in 1997 with the process of establishing
a Working Party on Application of New Technology
to Population Data.
The project aims at improving the capabilities
of member and associate member countries of
ESCAP in the application of modern information
technology (IT) in population statistics production
and dissemination. This will be achieved through:
Formulation and dissemination
of recommendations and guidelines on the application
of modern IT
Development of applications
utilizing IT in three pilot countries;
Training;
Sharing of information
and experience by producing newsletters and
a website on the Internet;
Raising awareness of
the role that modern IT plays in improving
the processes, products and services of the
national statistical offices (NSOs) in the
field of population statistics.
1. Background
The importance of valid, reliable and timely
data for population policy and programmes has
been emphasized in various international and
regional forums, including the International
Conference on Population and Development, which
was held in Cairo in 1994. The 1992 Bali
Declaration on Population and Sustainable Development
urged governments to give priority to the application
of modern information technologies in population
data production and dissemination. However,
the capacity to collect, process and effectively
disseminate population data varies in the countries
of the region, mainly due to differences in
the ability to exploit modern information technology.
This very diversity of abilities however offers
excellent opportunities for fruitful intraregional
cooperation in the area of population statistics.
Against this background, the secretariat designed
project RAS/96/P12 to promote the effective
utilization of modern technology in population
data collection, capture, storage, processing,
analysis and dissemination. The basic
thrust of the project is to share experiences
of NSOs, especially those which have made significant
progress in exploiting new technology.
2. Institutional
framework
ESCAP's Statistics Division, as the executing
agency, in April 1997 established a Working
Party on the application of new technology in
population data to guide and steer the activities
undertaken by the project. The Working
Party consists of nine members as follows:
Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Macau,
New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
The experts were selected in consultation with
the respective national statistical offices
and were expected to be present in all the
meetings of the Working Party. However,
in the absence of the initially designated expert,
his/her organization may send an alternate.
Additional experts from the same country represented
on the Working Party may attend at the expense
of their own organizations. Observers
from relevant international and national organizations
are also invited to participate in the meeting
of the working party. The tenure of the
Working Party was fixed as 1997-1999, during
which it was expected to meet frequently
and report to the ESCAP Committee on Statistics.
The terms of reference of the Working Party
are as follows:
Play a pivotal role
in consolidating the experiences of the countries
in the application of new technology to population
data and in sharing them within the region.
Identify priorities
and provide guidance to the activities of
the project on the application of new technology
in population data collection, analysis, presentation
and dissemination.
Advise the secretariat
on the strategy, approach and modalities to
be adopted in undertaking project activities,
producing its outputs, and meeting the immediate
objectives.
Review and monitor
progress of the project activities and submit
its observations, suggestions and recommendations
to the secretariat and the Committee on Statistics.
Formulate procedures
and make arrangements for the active participation
of its members and their parent organizations
in the activities of the project and its outputs,
including the preparation of guidelines
and provision of technical advice to the pilot
countries.
Play the focal role,
and guide the secretariat as necessary, in
securing close cooperation and inputs to the
project activities from various national and
international organizations.
Determine the timing
and provisional agenda for its own future
meetings.
3. Project
activities
(i) Working Party Meetings
During 1997-1999 the Working Party held four
meetings in which it identified priorities
for the project activities and provided guidance
on their implementation. Each meeting
also focused on a particular technology area
for which the members contributed technical
papers. Table 1 provides a summary of the Working
Party meetings.
Table 1:
Working Party Meetings and their focus
Meeting and Venue
Dates
Focus
Host
Chairperson
First (Bangkok)
24-26 September 1997
Recent developments in the application
of IT to population data
ESCAP
Mr Tomas Africa
Second (Singapore)
1-3 April 1998
Internet applications at various stages
of population data collection and dissemination
Department of Statistics,
Singapore
Mr Paul Cheung
Third (Bali)
7-9 Jan. 1999
Population data capture, coding, verification
and workflow
Statistics Indonesia
Mr Sihar Lumbantobing
Fourth (Manila)
6-9 July 1999
Mapping and related technologies
National Statistics Office, Philippines
Mr Tomas Africa
(ii) Guidelines
The Working Party recommended that three
self-contained guidelines be produced with a
view of benefitting developing countries.
The three guidelines to be produced are:
Guidelines on the application
of new technology to population data collection
and capture (Coordinator: Indonesia)
Guidelines on the application
of modern mapping and GIS technologies in
census operations (Coordinator: Bangladesh)
Guidelines on the application
of new information technology to population
data dissemination (Coordinator: New
Zealand).
The draft manuscripts of the above guidelines
are expected to be available in October 1999.
(iii) Pilot applications
The Working Party selected three pilot applications
to be undertaken by three NSOs. The results
and experiences of those applications
will be shared with other countries in the region.
These are:
Uses of Global Positioning
System (GPS) for preparation of census enumeration
area maps - Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
Imaging technology - Statistics
Indonesia
Uses of GIS for census operations
and dissemination - Philippines National Statistics
Office
The draft manuscripts of the reports of the
above 3 pilots are expected to be available
in October 1999.
(iv) Newsletters
Country experiences in the effective utilization
of information technology to population data
are shared through a regional newsletter. Three
issues of the newsletter have already been released.
(v) Website
The project website is as follows: http://www.unescap.org/stat/pop-it/
It contains all documents of the Working Party
meetings and other outputs of the project.
Its aim is to promote effective utilization
of information technology to population data.
(vi) Awareness package
on the application of modern technology to population
data
A multimedia awareness/training package is
also expected to be produced for promoting effective
and efficient utilization of IT in population
censuses and surveys. The Statistical
Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), which
is the statistical training arm of ESCAP, is
coordinating its production. The
material developed would be based on the outputs
of the project, among others, and be used in
current and future regional and national training
courses.
vii) ESCAP Survey on Application
of Information Technology Application to Population
Data Collection, Processing and Dissemination
Under the guidance of the Working Party,
ESCAP secretariat conducted the survey in 1998.
A questionnaire was sent to all 56 national
statistical offices in the ESCAP region in April
1998. Last responses were received in
November 1998. The results of the survey
were presented to the eleventh session of the
Committee on Statistics in November 1999, and
published in the project newsletter.
(viii) Workshop
on the application of IT to Population Data
The Working Party decided that the Workshop
be held in October 1999. It also determined
the strategy, organizational arrangements and
technology focus for the Workshop, its broad
objectives and material to be used, duration,
and the nature of participation.
