United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Advocacy Materials for Population and Housing Censuses Presentation at the Training Workshop on Census Questionnaires for Population and Housing Censuses in SPECA Member countries Dushanbe, Tajikistan, Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Themes to be discussed in this presentation (1)  The Problem  Different target groups will need different kinds of ready made information  Some target groups will need mainly customized information  Analytic materials, Good visual presentations  What are the main target groups for Census materials?  What are the main media of communication?

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Themes to be discussed in this presentation (2)  The need of a Broad Dissemination Strategy  The Census – A great possibility of Contact Building for the National Statistical Office!  But in close and clear relation to all this There is a need to have resources to do the Census, to produce the Census materials The need to have good understanding in society  The Government, Local administrations, other officials  The Population … Politicians  The NSO top leadership, Census staff, other staff members in the NSO

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Useful information sources on Advocacy for Censuses  UNFPA/PARIS21 International Expert Group Seminar : Population Census Data Dissemination, Use and Advocacy November 2003, Pretoria - SOUTH AFRICA es/task- teams/Teams/events/index. asp?id_event=1&tab=doc  UNECE Training Workshop on Management of Population and Housing Censuses for SPECA countries 30 Oct – 3 Nov 2006, Baku - AZERBAIJAN s/documents/ cen sus.htm

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide The Problem - as posed in the Pretoria Expert Group Seminar in 2003  “Statisticians like to talk to one another in mysterious ways and with a time clock which runs 10 times slower than everyone else's”   We have to communicate better!   We have to imagine ourselves into the position of the potential users of our information!

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Four important groups to be influenced 1. The public 2. The politicians 3. The people making decisions on funding in the government 4. Development partners, be it international or national organisations They are connected  Politicians need votes from the public  Governments are / should be accountable

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Four important groups… 1. Public Perceptions  Health care  Schools  Medicines  Roads  Water  Crime prevention  Census????

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Four important groups… 2. Low Political Popularity  Censuses tend to attract hostile media coverage…  “You missed me out!”  “Why does it take so long?”  “What happened to the money?”  “My group is undercounted!” Any votes for the Census?

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Four important groups… 3. Sceptical Ministries of Finance  There’s just not enough money for everything  “Can it be that expensive?”  Once in 10 years budget shock  “Sorry, but we have other priorities” How much did you say?

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Four important groups… 4. Donor organizations and countries not always understanding…  Certainly there is need for the information  …but there may be a reluctances to fund a census  Hard to attribute development success “only” through having good Census results  Shared funding may be hard to manage financially  The decision maker may not always understand the magnitude or the process

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Strategies (1)  Take publicity seriously Enlarge the PR or publicity staff during the “hot” years or Census activities or recruit a Census Press Officer Make a good plan of what will be published  Advocacy materials  Census result materials  Target audiences  Choice of correct media  Cost plan and budget for publicity activities Enlist support from key users

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Strategies (2)  The importance of good Census information How can resources be allocated if basic information on population is based on guesses and (too) old information? Attracting investments, doing good business, developing economic activities needs good infrastructure – reliable official statistics is basic Monitoring donor activities needs good basic background information If the denominators of Gross Domestic Product, Millennium Development Goals are wrong, no information is reliable

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Justify the Costs (1)  Prepare a full budget justifying each line  Costs can partially also be justified by basic Statistical Capacity building Make as many parts as possible sustainable  Building relations to potential user groups of official statistics  Good visual presentations  Consequent style in publication activities  Geographic Information Systems - GIS

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Justify the Costs (2)  Cost of each question versus cost of NOT having data and information Wrong analysis of the situation Wrong allocation of resources Wrong investments of scarce resources Economic support not made use of / misplaced / not received at all due to poor monitoring and basic information  MDG Indicators – a joint effort

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Broad Dissemination Strategy * The need to identify different need structures of different users * Presentation at the Training Workshop on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses in SPECA Member countries Baku, Azerbaijan, – Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE Excerpts

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Broad Dissemination Strategy  See presentation from the Baku Training Workshop at the UNECE web site  In English s/documents/ece/ces/ge.4 1/2006/13.e.ppt s/documents/ece/ces/ge.4 1/2006/13.e.ppt  In Russian s/documents/ece/ces/ge.4 1/2006/13.r.ppt s/documents/ece/ces/ge.4 1/2006/13.r.ppt

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Why segment customers? Shouldn’t we serve everybody equally?  Different customer segments have different need structures of statistical information.  Everybody benefits from developing the services and increased service ability according to institutional need structures! Media Government bodies Local administration bodies Corporations and enterprises Research institutions Educational institutions NGOs Others

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide The media is your partner  In the preparation stages of the Census process  In disseminating the main results  In making problematic issues known  Help the media to be well informed!

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide The role of publicity and information campaigns  Promoting public awareness  Creating positive perceptions  Informing about the importance and usefulness for the society  Encouraging participation  Diminishing possible resistance Especially among particular and special groups

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Publicity campaigns are widely used  Publicity campaigns are widely used  In the 2000 round of Population and Housing Censuses in the ECE Region Out of 43 reporting countries 41 countries had made some kind of publicity campaign for the census Only Belgium and Denmark did not carry out any publicity, as their cencus heavily relied on administrative data

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide The importance of good contact information  User lists From previous censuses Users of socio-economic statistical materials  Contact directories  Feedback contacts   Contact / Customer database   Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide You will profit much from active feedback  Having more feedback will help you to develop your services  Interaction with critical customers will help you in having a positive pressure on performing better  A demanding customer is like a grain of sand within the mussel. It doesn’t feel good but the result may be a beautiful pearl!

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide The efforts you will make will be rewarded because…  Only used statistical information is useful statistical information!  Thank you for your attention! 