Expert Group Meeting to
Review the United Nations Demographic Yearbook System
10-14 November 2003
New York
The Demographic Yearbook System in Review:
Towards an effective Collection and Dissemination
of Demographic Statistics Worldwide
A Work Plan for 2004-2014
Demographic and Social Statistics Branch
United Nations Statistics Division
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Outcome of the Review
(Collection of data)
Key areas for change and intervention include:
• Content and format of the questionnaires
• Data collection procedures, including timing,
medium, and follow-up mechanisms
• Motivating and keeping countries (and other data
providers) engaged
• Extending the coverage of the system, with
respect to country involvement
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Outcome of the Review (cont.)
(Service and Outreach to client)
• Broadening the range and variety of
services provided
• Enlarging the circle of audience, in terms of
both diversity and number of users and their
uses of the statistics
• Strengthening feedback mechanisms and
relationship with data providers
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Experts views and suggestions
The meeting has over these couple of days:
• Stated concerns
• Clarified the constraints and barriers to data
transfer from countries to the Demographic
Yearbook system
• Expressed views on what changes are
needed to enhance the efficacy of the
system.
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Key messages
Rethink the role of the Demographic Yearbook
system
• Modify the mode of operation – Partnerships
• Expand medium of operation – employ all media
of communication for direct interaction with
countries and providing the required services
• Move from data to information
• Be proactive – seek out and seek the views
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Experts views and suggestions
• Set up partnerships in:
• Collection of data
• Dissemination of statistics
• Capacity building
• Maintain more consistent direct interaction
with countries and engage countries in
continuous dialogue (as both the providers
and users of statistics)
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Experts views and suggestions
(cont.)
• Adopt a flexible approach
• In the content, form and medium of data collection
• In medium of data dissemination
• Work towards more comparable and
comprehensive set of basic demographic and social
statistics (aim to reduce footnotes)
• Develop a minimum set of tables which will cover most
countries
• Redesign questionnaires adopting a nested approach
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Experts views and suggestions
(cont.)
• In data dissemination – think access, with
respect to:
•
•
•
•
Format, content and medium (with querying possibility)
Flow of continuous information – use of internet
Flexible to meet different needs
Include analysis on coverage, comparability, and quality
issues
• Access to the database for national statistical
offices) and limited access to the public
• Free access to data
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Goals of the Programme
(In the long term)
• Statistics that are disseminated at the international
level adequately reflect the state and availability of
statistics in the respective countries
• Demographic Yearbook system acts as a portal for
the dissemination of official national demographic
and social statistics at the international level
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Goals of the Programme
(In the long term)
• As a service to national statistical systems — to
distribute their statistics to interested partner
international agencies, regional commissions, the
Population Division and other parts of the United
Nations system as needed
• As a service to data users — to make readily
available at the international level, to a wide range
of users, national demographic and social statistics
and easily accessible in formats that are acceptable
to a variety of users
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Specific Objectives
• Strengthen national statistical systems to participate
and contribute to the system
• Systematically address and cater to the statistical
needs of national agencies that provide statistics to
the Demographic Yearbook system
• Ensure that statistics collected and disseminated are
comprehensive with respect to the number of
countries and areas covered in the system as a
whole, and also in the details given by the specific
tables
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Specific Objectives (cont.)
• Respond to emerging statistical needs of users, by
providing timely and reliable data that reflect
national statistical capacities for an increasing
number of countries and areas
• Effectively reach out to current and potential users
to inform and provide feedback on data
availability, their uses and limitations
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Objective 1: Greater and consistent participation of
countries
• Establish a schedule for administering the set of Demographic
Yearbook questionnaires
• Circulate to countries/areas, information about the activities of
Demographic Yearbook system and the services that are available
• Review and reconcile differences and inconsistencies in the
Principles and Recommendations
• Review and revise the Demographic Yearbook questionnaires and
produced them in all six official languages of the United Nations
• Make the Demographic Yearbook questionnaires available to
countries and areas in the most accessible format of their choice
(i.e., in print, on diskettes, by e-mail, through internet)
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Objective 2: Assess and systematically address the
statistical needs of national agencies as well as other
international offices
• Get informed about the preferences of countries and areas
with respect to:- language and medium of the questionnaires
to be administered; preferred form of transfer of their data,
the minimum set of data that are available and/or can be
provided, and major constraints
• Determine ways of addressing specific needs and constraints
of countries
• Update information on how changes in the system are
addressing the concerns and needs of the countries and areas
• Establish coordination arrangements in data collection/data
sharing, and extended existing ones, with relevant
international and regional organizations
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Objective 3: Collect and disseminate comprehensive
statistics
• Assess the degree of completeness of the coverage of the
available data and data gaps
• Produce and circulate to countries and areas, country
sheets reflecting data availability, receipt of completed
questionnaires and responses to data requests
• Launch a campaign for receiving national statistics
publications, including census reports and related
information, and where applicable, electronic files on
tables published in these reports
• Institute a system for extracting statistics from published
sources to supplement data provided by countries
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Objective 4: Develop a flexible system that responds
to current, as well as emerging statistical needs
• Assess the needs of a cross-section of current and potential users of the
Demographic Yearbook system, including data requirements and
specification of format and media of dissemination
• Produce the variety of products that would respond to different user
needs and purposes
• Have a cleaned-up and functioning database system that is accessible
to users
• Published a special issue on each of the topics on which Demographic
Yearbook system collects data
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Objective 5: Increase utilization of data through an
effective outreach to current and potential users
• Ascertain the characteristics of current
users, and ways in which they are being
and/or can be reached
• Institute mechanism for providing feedback
to countries and areas on a continuous basis
on their inputs
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Objective 5: Increase utilization of data through an
effective outreach to current and potential users
(cont.)
• Exploit the opportunity presented by the
different professional meetings/conferences
to interact with users and provide updated
information on the Demographic Yearbook
system
• Make greater use of the Internet to publicise
the Demographic Yearbook system, as well
as serve the statistical needs of users
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Thank you
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