1 / 20

5th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development Dakar, Senegal 19 th – 21 st November 2009

5th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development Dakar, Senegal 19 th – 21 st November 2009. Report of Pre-Conference Workshop on the ‘Theme’ . by, Dr. Bolaji Taiwo … CPSS, GISP, SAG, PhD . Geo-Spatial Scientist & Census Mapping Consultant 5 th ASSD, ICT Expert Group Rapporteur.

weylin
Download Presentation

5th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development Dakar, Senegal 19 th – 21 st November 2009

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. 5th Africa Symposium on Statistical Development Dakar, Senegal 19th – 21st November 2009

  2. Report of Pre-Conference Workshop on the ‘Theme’ by, Dr. Bolaji Taiwo…CPSS, GISP, SAG, PhD. Geo-Spatial Scientist & Census Mapping Consultant 5th ASSD, ICT Expert Group Rapporteur

  3. Presentation Outline • Background • Purpose of pre-conference workshop • Highlights of workshop activities • Summary of Countries experiences with ICT • Statistical Office GIS: Key Management Considerations • Statistical Office EDP: Key Management Considerations • Pre-Conference Workshop Resolution

  4. Background • Workshop took place between 19th - 21st October 2009 at Birchwood Conference Centre in Benoni, South Africa • Sponsored by UNFPA and Statistics South Africa • Delegates from 12 countries participated • Two ICT experts participated: Dr. David Beckles, Independent Consultant on Data Processing and Dr. Bolaji Taiwo, UNFPA Consultant on Census Mapping • Emerging ICT issues in Statistics Offices were identified, elaborated and discussed

  5. Purpose of Workshop • 2nd in a series of workshops in preparation for the 5th ASSD • Generate and discuss topical issues as inputs into the ICT Experts report to be presented in the 5th ASSD • Focus was on use of modern ICT in Census Processes and the key issues for NSO management consideration • Provide opportunity and exposure for Young African Statisticians (YASs) to show case their research potentials • Build and foster an ICT-focused cohort of YASs as part of the ISIbalo Capacity Building Programme

  6. Highlights of Workshop Activities • Presentations by Country delegates on their experiences with emerging ICT issues • Census ICT experts led discussions on emerging ICT issues • Census ICT experts inputs, view points, scenario-based commentaries and recommendations • Presentations by YASs on their research work • Commentaries, Commendation and Critique of YASs presentations by workshop participants

  7. Summary of Countries Experiences with ICT • Angola: • No ccensus was conducted in the 30 years • Very limited experience with scanning technology in the survey QUICK • Angola has been advised to consider PDA’s and scanning technology • Senegal: • Senegal has not yet used the new technology for data processing • Processing for past three censuses performed manually • Senegal, not the NSO, has once used the scanning technology, following donation and funding from the World Bank • The NSO is seriously weighing its options to use new technology for the 2010 Census • There is bias towards the use of PDA’s but funding remains a challenge

  8. Summary of Countries Experiences with ICT…contd. • Egypt: • Successfully used new technology to conduct Census in 2006 • Egypt stressed the importance of proper planning before conducting census • Kenya: • Used new technologies to conduct censuses in 1999 and 2009 • In 1999 Kenya used the Optical Character Reader (OCR) • For scanning purposes, the non-commercial Integrated Computer Assisted Data Entry (ICADE) system was used • OCR can also be used as an Intelligent Character Reader (ICR)

  9. Summary of Countries Experiences with ICT…contd. • Lesotho: • Lesotho opted for scanning 2006 census because it was known to be faster than the manual data entry, as such; it speeds up the process of releasing the census results • Operational challenges were experienced forcing the data processing staff to manually re-enter questionnaires • Operational challenges resulted in delays in the release of census results • There was lack of capacity for census data processing within the NSO • There was also high staff turn-over between January 2007 & December 2008

  10. Summary of Countries Experiences with ICT…contd. • Zimbabwe: • Zimbabwe is of the view that the scanners are very user-friendly, and will therefore be utilized in the coming 2012 Census • Zimbabwe will not recommend the use of PDA’s at this stage because PDA’s are very costly and their country is in a serious financial crisis • The Zimbabwean census staff were relatively pleased and apparently enjoyed the speed of data entry that came with scanning • Unfortunately, at some stage the scanner broke down and it took a very long time to fix the scanning machine, because the scanning machine had to be sent to the United Kingdom for repairs • Experienced high staff turn-over during census of 2002 of mostly data capturers and data processors • There was little funding from development partners

  11. Summary of Countries Experiences with ICT…contd. • South Africa: • Census results are normally released electronically • Used scanning technology in Census 2001 • According to South Africa, the Scanning Technology brings with it very enormous benefits • The benefits include improving the quality of the data, saving time and reducing costs tremendously • Operational challenges were encountered causing serious delays in data processing • South Africa maintained that new technology should be able to adapt over time, especially in view of ever changing technological innovations.

  12. Statistical Office GIS: Key Management Considerations Issues to Ponder: • Huge financial outlay that might not yield short-term return on investment…”$500 solution for $5 problem” • Data conversion strategy • Interoperability of spatial datasets & digital map data sharing protocols • GIS infrastructure & Software maintenance costs • Mobile data capture and ‘paperless ideology’

  13. Statistical Office GIS: Key Management Considerations Issues to Ponder:…continued • Staff capacity and willingness to embrace new technology • High turnover of trained and competent GIS specialist • National spatial data set clearing house (NSDI) • Meta data and geographic coding schemes • Cartographic projections and coordinate systems • Donor funds fatigue and joint programming • Seamless integration of data capture, processing, analyses and dissemination

  14. Statistical Office GIS: Key Management Considerations Summary of GIS Expert Viewpoint: • GIS is need-based and problem-driven rather than technology-driven • GIS implementation requires high-level management support • GIS needs long-term funding plan, cost-recovery and data pricing strategy • GIS needs accurate estimates of maintenance and associated costs

  15. Statistical Office EDP: Key Management Considerations Issues to Ponder: • It is not scanning that causes problems in many countries but poor process design, process evaluation and process monitoring • Optical Mark Reading (OMR) is a fairly matured technology since 1960 and is very accurate with 99.99% accuracy • The way data is collected has a far reaching implication on how it is processed • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) focuses on bubbles, tick marks and check boxes

  16. Statistical Office EDP: Key Management Considerations Issues to Ponder:…continued • ICR is more flexible…can perform all OCR features and more • OMR is cheaper technology when compared to ICR that is very expensive • There is an inevitable interaction between electronic data processing (EDP) and geographic information system (GIS) • Sufficient time to learn about, and pre-test the scanning technology is paramount

  17. Statistical Office EDP: Key Management Considerations Summary of EDP Expert Viewpoint: • Scanning is the preferred census data processing technology for the 21st century • NSO’s should preferably develop capacity to maintain their own scanners at all times • Sharing country experiences in the use of ICT is of pivot importance to maximise the benefits that can accrue from the utilization of modern technology • Scanning should not start before the pre-processes are properly done and completed

  18. Pre-Conference Workshop Resolution • The world revolves around the latest technology and there is a need for young people with skills and understanding to tackle various issues • ISIbalo Capacity Building Programme could not have been initiated and implemented at a better time than now as Africa and the world at large are currently busy measuring the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs) • For quite some time Africa has been apologetic about her circumstances and failed to address her problems • Africa to tackle its problems and stop depending on the first world for assistance especially on intellectual capacity • The main reason for the use of Information and Communication Technology is to increase efficiency, quality and most importantly turn-around time

  19. Pre-Conference Workshop Resolution…contd. • The choice of the technology to be used must be informed by need, cost-benefit analysis, practical circumstances, skill levels in the NSO to be able to maximize the technology • The market provides a wide range of ICT solutions but the onus is on the NSO to do due diligence on the technology before procuring it • Before deciding to use technology it is important to conduct extensive research to identify the associated risks • Whilst there are various technologies to opt for to implement the different phases of the census value chain it is advisable to seek interoperability • Adopting new technology does not mean completely abandoning traditional means of quality assurance like verification of information on the ground

  20. END Thank you for your attention

More Related