Mobilizing Resources for Censuses: Strategies for Reducing Census Costs/ Perspectives of Donor Countries Based on Japanese Experience

1
Mobilizing Resources for Censuses Strategies for
Reducing Census Costs/ Perspectives of Donor
Countries Based on Japanese Experience

• Takehiro Fukui
• Statistics Bureau
• Japan

2
Mobilizing Resources for Censuses Strategies
for Reducing Census Costs

1. Japanese international cooperation in the field
   of the population census
2. Major considerations on developing census
   capacity
3. Strategies for reducing census costs

3
Japanese international cooperation in the field
of the population census

• Multilateral cooperation
•    The Statistics Bureau has been hosting the
  Meeting of the Heads of National Statistical
  Offices in East Asian Countries at the interval
  of two/three years since 1980.
• The aim of this meeting is to exchange views
  and experiences on the population census and
  other statistical surveys.

4
Japanese international cooperation in the field
of the population census

•   Bilateral cooperation
• Bilateral cooperation includes regular exchange
  of statistical missions with the national
  statistical offices of China and Korea since
  1980.
• The Bureau provided technical assistance to
  Mexico, Argentina, Sri Lanka and Indonesia under
  the cooperation scheme of the Japan International
  Cooperation Agency (JICA).

5
Major cooperation activities in the ESCAP region

• Multilateral cooperation
• ESCAP, SIAP, ADB, etc.
• The EAST-WEST Centers population census
  conferences
• ANCSDAAP, the Association of National Census
  and Statistics Directors of America, Asia and the
  Pacific
• The Meetings of the Heads of National Statistical
  Offices in East Asian Countries
• The Asian Statistical Forum
• Bilateral cooperation

6

• International cooperation
• A broad range of donors
• (bilateral, regional and global multilateral)
• The necessity of donor coordination
• to avoid the duplication of technical
  assistance
• Paris21 is a useful platform for networking
  among donors.

7
Major considerations of developing census
capacity

• Organization
• Total quality management
• Cost-effective mobilization of resources
• Human resource development
• Continuous training of statistical staff
• Technological platform
• Appropriate use of new technologies in every
  possible stage of the census process

8
The cost-effectiveness is important in each
census process.

• Pre-enumeration stage
• Census planning Cost-effective planning
  
• Census organization Total quality management
  
• Questionnaire design
• Conducting pilot censuses Cost-effective survey
• Cartography GIS, GPS
• Publicity Outsourcing
• Data processing system design Appropriate use of
  new technology

9
Enumeration stage

• Recruitment and training of field workers
  Establishing effective recruitment/training
  system
• Field enumeration
• Post enumeration survey
• Cost-effective
  survey

10
Post-enumeration stage

• Data processing
• Data capturing PC-entry, OCR/ICR, CATI, CAPI,
  Internet
• Coding Automatic coding
• Data editing Computer imputation
• Final tabulation Software packages
• Dissemination of the results New media
• Evaluation of the census processEvaluation of
  cost-performance

11
New Technology for the Japanese 2000 Census

• Use of optical character readers (OCR) for data
  capturing
• Background of using OCR
• Limit to improvement of OMR capability
• Advance in the OCRs technology
• Flexible design of questionnaires
• Easily readable questionnaires printed using
  ordinary printing ink
• (OMRs demanded drop-out color ink)
• High recognition rate

12
New Technology for the Japanese 2000 Census

• Major Features of New OCR
• Allow for blue or black ballpoint pen
  (Pencils are acceptable, of courses)
• Capture images in any designated areas on both
  sides of the questionnaire sheet simultaneously
• Correct recognition at least 98.4(A)
• Error recognition less than 0.3(B)
• Non-recognition less than 1.3
• Correct rate among Recognized 99.7
• 
  (A)/((A)(B))

13
New Technology for the Japanese 2000 Census

• Selection of data capture technology is a crucial
  success factor in census taking.
• Assess all costs and select the best
  cost-effective option (1) selection,
  (2)procurement, (3)operation, (4)maintenance
  and (5)management

14
New Technology for the Japanese 2000 Census

• Use of GIS (CMSCensus Mapping System)
• Automated demarcation of densely inhabited
  districts (Statistically defined urban areas)
• Compilation of small area statistics such as mesh
  (grid square) statistics and block statistics
• Providing the sampling frame for household surveys

15
New Technology for the Japanese 2000 Census
Tabulation and dissemination

• Introducing quality control measures
• Computer editing and imputation
• Industrial classification coding operation
  decentralized to local governments
• Data dissemination on computer readable media and
  Internet
• balance between paper reports and outputs using
  electronic media (Internet,CD-R,etc.)

16
Strategies for reducing the census costs

• Cost-effective planning and management
• To raise awareness of the necessity of the
  Census 
• To build partnership at every stage of the
  process
• Cost-effective mobilization of available
  resources
• Cost-effective outsourcing of some census
  activities to the private sector OCR operation,
  coding, etc.

17
Strategies for reducing census costs

• To collect current good practices for reducing
  census costs in each NSO.
• Appropriate practices would cover not only the
  technical and procedural aspects but also the
  management ones.
• To assemble recommended current good practices
  for reducing census costs and to distribute to
  each NSO.

18
Concluding remark

• The best strategy to reduce census costs vary
  from country to country.
• The best strategy depends on the magnitude of
  each census, the availability of local skills,
  existing know-how from prior experience, census
  organization, budgetary conditions and many other
  factors specific to each country.