1. Introduction
2. Implications of Global Summit Goals on Census Undertaking
3. Implications of Developments in Information Technology
4. Implications of Available Donor Resources for Population Censuses
5. Action by the Working Group

Annex

1. The 2000 round of population and housing censuses is significant in at least two respects. These enumerations provide an inventory of the population at the beginning of the next millennium, a historic moment in the evolution of mankind and indeed a most opportune time for stock-taking of people in all the countries. This puts a higher emphasis on the need for an accurate count of the population and their characteristics. The censuses are also significant in the sense that they are taking place at a time of unprecedented growth in information technology that provides cost-effective and efficient solutions to many of the census activities.
2. This document attempts to bring out some of the important issues related to census taking in the region and to provide a basis for the Working Group's comments and discussions regarding those issues. For purposes of discussion, we refer to the 2000 round of population and housing censuses as those conducted or planned during the period 1995-2004.
3. Annex 1 shows the countries and areas in the ESCAP region and the year in which they are undertaking their censuses for the 2000 round. Of the 56 countries and territories in this region, 27 carried out a census during the period 1995-1999 of which 10 (Hong Kong, China; Japan; Republic of Korea; Philippines; Maldives; Australia; Kiribati; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau and New Zealand) conducted the population count as part of their quinquennial census programme. About 60 per cent (33) of the countries in the ESCAP region have plans to conduct a census at the turn of the new millennium, that is, in 2000 or 2001; two others (Turkmenistan and the Federated States of Micronesia) are planning to do so in the year 2004.
4. It might be noted that for the North and Central Asia subregion, which comprises mainly countries of the former Soviet Union, the 2000 round of population censuses are the first that they are conducting as separate and independent states. For these countries, the years following independence have been a period of political, social and economic transformations and these have brought about additional challenges to statistical offices as regards census taking. Census methodologies have to conform to data needs under a market economy, as opposed to those required under a centrally planned economy. At the same time, there is mounting pressure on these countries to adhere to international standards of statistical practice in order to make their data comparable with the rest of the world.
5. International standards of census taking are set forth in the United Nations publication, Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses.^1/  First published in the seventies, it has undergone a series of revisions, the latest of which were the result of a review by an expert group meeting convened by the United Nations Statistics Division in 1996. The revisions were adopted by the Statistical Commission in 1997 and the English version of the revised document has been circulated for use during the 2000 round of population censuses.
6. Unfortunately, the translation and publication of the revised guidelines into the other official languages of the United Nations could not be completed in time for the census preparations in the countries where they were most needed. For example, countries like Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan which undertook their population and housing censuses in early 1999 could not benefit from the use of the revised guidelines since the Russian version was not available early enough.
7. Unlike the regional commissions for Europe and Africa, ESCAP was unable to organize working group meetings to discuss issues and make recommendations for the 2000 round of population censuses which are particularly relevant to this region. The main reason for this was the secretariat's inability to mobilize the necessary extrabudgetary funds. Nonetheless, despite the fact that there was no regional meeting specifically in the 2000 round of population census in Asia and the Pacific, experts in the region had their inputs reflected in the revision of the Principles and Recommendations referred to above during the expert group meeting organized by the United Nations Statistics Division in September 1996.
8. It should be noted that the Principles and Recommendations have been revised taking into account the following developments that significantly bear upon the design of census programmes: (a) changes in computer technology; (b) increased capability of national census offices to disseminate census data in a more flexible manner together with the increased ability of users to utilize data stored in electronic formats; (c) changes in socio-economic situations in many countries; and (d) increased emphasis on responding to the needs of data users.

9. The requirements for monitoring the goals of recent international conferences have decidedly increased the demand for data to be obtained through a population and housing census. They have become crucial concerns for census planners even as demands for data to serve national purposes have increased. Among other things, the global conferences dictate that censuses should ensure appropriate collection of information on the social and economic status of women; accurate enumeration of the number of internally displaced persons and international refugees; identification of household practices ( e.g., method of waste disposal) that have impact on the environment; estimation of the extent of poverty with the use of proxy indicators, etc.
10. To improve gender statistics, one of the primary concerns is to be able to identify female-headed households and record them as such. In a majority of the countries in this region, when the question is asked "Who is the head of this household?", tradition still predisposes the identification of a male member of the household as its head regardless of the distribution of responsibilities and authority between men and women within the household. Alternative ways of asking questions to identify the head of the household are essential and need to be tested.
11. Another and perhaps an even more important concern affecting the collection of gender-sensitive statistics is the tendency of most statistical inquiries to fail to fully account for the economic activities of women. A number of recommendations have been made on the formulation of questions on economic activity so as to elicit accurate information on the nature and extent of women's work.^2/  These recommendations require additional questions to be asked in an already crammed census questionnaire; frequently they compete with other topical items that statistical offices feel under pressure to include. Nothwithstanding the cost of including additional questions, the benefits in terms of improved statistics on women dictate that countries should endeavour to use measures that accurately reflect the value of women's work.
12. In Nepal, part of the census publicity programme, which is being organized in preparation for the 2001 census, includes an awareness raising campaign on the importance of the role of women in society. It is designed to change general public perceptions on the value of women's work and to ensure that it is properly reported when a census interviewer comes to collect the information.
13. For the economies in transition, the approach to measuring economic activity in general is undergoing significant change. This is necessitated by the transition to a free market economy wherein public sector employment has been drastically pruned down. The system of maintaining a register of unemployed people no longer provides a reliable basis of the extent of unemployment in these economies. Many unemployed persons no longer register themselves officially, believing that the government can no longer assure them of jobs.
14. The 2000 round of censuses provides the opportunity for establishing benchmark levels of employment and unemployment among the economically active population. The previous decennial census did include a question on economic activity. The same type of question, however, cannot capture the dynamics of the labour market that now characterizes these economies. There is therefore a need to adopt, for example, the 'labour force approach' if the census is to measure adequately the extent of labour force participation and levels of employment/unemployment.
15. In this regard, a thorough understanding of the concepts used in the approach has to be imparted to national statisticians in these economies who are charged with the design of the questionnaire and analysis of labour statistics. Lack of such understanding can lead to ill-designed questionnaires and, in turn, to invalid or unreliable statistics.
16. Political, religious and civil conflicts that currently exist in a number of countries in this region have led to large numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees. This situation has several implications for the 2000 round of population censuses not only within the countries where these conflicts exist but in the neighbouring countries as well. The concerned countries need to ensure that such internally displaced persons and refugees are accurately enumerated and their characteristics recorded so that national and international efforts to rehabilitate them have well-grounded bases. The very situation in which these groups of persons find themselves, however, mitigates efforts to count them accurately. While most of them may be living in camps, many are known to have assimilated themselves in regular domiciles and are therefore difficult to catch. Fearful of eviction or otherwise harsh treatment from the civil government, some of them give false information to protect themselves.
17. In view of their being non-residents in the temporary location where the census enumerators find them, they can create a statistical dilemma for census organizations. Census officials would have to take a decision to either include or exclude them from the regular statistical tables. If excluded, then a separate report may have to be produced to document their numbers, their geographic distribution and characteristics. To include them would, of course, complicate the statistics which are used for a variety of administrative and planning decisions concerning bona fide residents of the area.
18. Traditionally, population and housing censuses have not been designed with specific needs for environmental analysis in mind. Some of the items asked in past censuses, however, have provided some basis for investigating environmental concerns. For example, the question on type of materials used for housing construction, while intended mainly to ascertain housing demand, is a potential source of information on the pattern of use of indigenous raw materials for housing. In addition, post-facto analysis of population distribution across geographical and ecological territories provided the main approach to use of census data for an analysis of population and environment linkages.
19. The need for more data for environmental planning has increased the demand to use the population and housing census as a vehicle for the collection of relevant information. Maldives, for example, owing to its fragile ecosystem and its limited and dispersed land resources, is planning to use the census for collecting questions which are directly related to environment.This means that some of the usual questions asked in a census will have to be dropped if the scope of the census and its efficiency is to remain optimal.

20. The implications of recent developments in information technology on statistical undertakings has been the subject of discussion at a number of global and regional meetings and conferences during the last decade. The general consensus reached in these meetings is that information technology has opened opportunities for statistical activities to be cost-effective and efficient and that, where appropriate, statistical organizations should adopt available technology to enhance their statistical capacities.
21. The ESCAP secretariat recently conducted the Workshop on Application of New Information Techonology to Population Data in Bangkok from 12-20 October; the recommendations of this workshop in document STAT/WGSE.11/5 will be discussed under agenda item 5. It may be mentioned at this point though that the participants of the Workshop felt that, while the discussions and presentations were very informative and useful, its timing was a bit too late for making decisions regarding the 2000 round of censuses. As mentioned earlier, many of the countries have either undertaken their censuses or are in the advanced stage of preparation.
22. Another important point to raise at this time is perhaps the feeling that the option for data capture for the small and less developed countries in the region is still manual key-in operation. The size of the population, the lack of financial resources, and the absence of technical support for the newer technologies are among the reasons that deter these countries from pursuing the adoption of new technologies. It is interesting to note that Malaysia, which had used OMR for capturing data in its previous censuses, is abandoning this approach in favour of manual operations for its 2001 population census.
23. What seem to be feasible and (in terms of cost) non-prohibitive applications of new technology are the dissemination of data through electronic media and publication through the world wide web. Many of the statistical offices in the region now have websites through which they disseminate the statistics they collect. There is, however, a need to redesign the sites to make them more user-friendly and more attractive in terms of the services that they offer.
24. With increased affordability and availability of computers in most countries, and increasing computer literacy, it is anticipated that many data users will now demand data that they can further process and manipulate. Use of floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, and file transfers through the internet seem to be an efficient way of distributing large tabulations or micro-level data bundled with table retrieval software.

25. A major concern among statistical organizations in respect of the conduct of population censuses is a dwindling in the resources which have been traditionally allocated by donors for this purpose. The UNFPA, which has been one of the major donors in this area, itself is facing such serious financial constraints that it had to scale down its level of funding for population programmes, including data collection, in countries where it provides support. Consequently, an increased level of assistance appears remote, at least for the 2000 round of population censuses. This may have serious implications on the ability of the least developed countries, which depend to a large extent on donor resources, to successfully carry out their next census. In Nepal, preparations for the 2001 census are underway through the assistance of multiple donors, each contributing in small, albeit significant, ways. There is still a need for financial assistance, particularly, for the data processing of the census. Unless such assistance is forthcoming, the timely completion of the Nepal census remains in jeopardy.
26. Since the beginning of 1999, the advisory post for population statistics in the UNFPA Suva Country Support Team has been vacant. A recent decision of the UNFPA suggests that the post will not be filled. There would thus continue to be a void in the availability of much needed advisory services in the Pacific subregion.
27. In the light of seriously diminished donor assistance now available to data collection, in general, and the 2000 round of population censuses, in particular, the need for technical cooperation among countries has never been more urgent. Exchange of experiences and expertise needs to be fostered so that statisticians from the least developed countries can benefit from experience of the relatively advanced countries.

28. In this latter regard, the Working Group may wish to recommend that the Statistics Division of ESCAP attempt to play an increasing role in facilitating technical cooperation among countries. The Working Group is also invited to give its views and comments on the various developments and issues raised in the document.