NAY PYI DAW, Myanmar — An advisory group of census experts from around the world met between the 10th to 11th February, the fifth in-country meeting of the International Technical Advisory Board (ITAB).
The ITAB was formed at the end of 2012 as a body to provide high level technical advice to ensure credibility of the Census and its compliance with international standards. This was the first in-country meeting since the release of the provisional results in August 2014.
In his opening remark, U Win Myint, Deputy Minister for Immigration and Population thanked UNFPA for its support throughout the Census preparation, data collection and data processing and said ITAB had added credibility to the Myanmar Census. Janet Jackson, UNFPA Country Representative emphasised: “A census is not owned by a government, it belongs to the community that will use the data. As it’s from the people, we will hand it back to the people to use for the development of their communities”.
During the two day meeting, members of the ITAB, representatives from the Ministry for Immigration and Population, the Department of Population, donors and UNFPA had the opportunity to consider the quality of the provisional results; both in enumerated as well as in non-enumerated areas, the status and the quality of data capture (scanning), data coding, editing and imputation. ITAB members reviewed the tabulation plans for the launch of the main Census results in May 2015 as well as the plans for thematic analysis, data dissemination and evaluation.
On the issue of the main results, in the press statement issued at the end of the meeting, it was noted with satisfaction that data scanning and data editing for the main results, planned for release in May 2015, had been successfully concluded and continuing analysis of the data suggested that there is a consistency between the main results and the provisional results, which is an indication that the scanning and editing process of the main results comply to international standards.
In conclusion to the question and answer session at the press conference, Dr Werner Haug, co-chair of the ITAB pointed out that in regard to the accuracy of the population of Myanmar recorded in the provisional results in contrast to an earlier projected number: “The problem is not the 2014 Census but the estimate completed previously”.
