Workshop on Application of New Information Technology to Population Data
12-20 October 1999
Bangkok

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.

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.

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:

1. 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. 
2. 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.
3. Advise the secretariat on the strategy, approach and modalities to be adopted in undertaking project activities, producing its outputs, and meeting the immediate objectives.
4. Review and monitor progress of the project activities and submit  its observations, suggestions and recommendations to the secretariat and the Committee on Statistics.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Determine the timing and provisional agenda for its own future 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

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:

1. Guidelines on the application of new technology to population data collection and capture (Coordinator:  Indonesia)
2. Guidelines on the application of modern mapping and GIS technologies in census operations (Coordinator:  Bangladesh)
3. Guidelines on the application of new information technology to population data dissemination (Coordinator:  New Zealand).

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:

1. Uses of Global Positioning System (GPS) for preparation of census enumeration area maps - Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics
2. Imaging technology - Statistics Indonesia
3. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.