Nay Pyi Taw - Having released the Census main results on 29th of May, the Ministry of Immigration and Population (MOIP) is now preparing 13 thematic reports. These publications will dig deeper into the analysis of the Census to reveal important aspects for Myanmar’s social development in education, children & youth, mortality, disability, migration, labour and gender. The Census thematic reports will be the cornerstone for policy and planning by the Government and other actors. These will add understanding of differences in socio-economic situations or development across geographic lines, among urban and rural residents, or between males and females. Each report will be published and available in both Myanmar and English.
On 14th August 2015, a data-consultation with some 115 stakeholders in attendance, took place in Nay Pyi Taw to review the outlines of the thematic reports and to ensure the reports are relevant to data users. Thematic experts including health practitioners, academics, UN agencies, INGOs, NGOs, civil society as well as Government specialists provided input on priority areas and policies. The approach integrated recommendations from user-producer workshops that took place in early 2015 with over 200 participants. In his opening remarks, the Director General for the DoP, U Myint Khaing, highlighted the importance of making the thematic analysis useful for all data users. Dr. Hla Hla Aye, Assistant Representative of UNFPA, added that these consultations promote multi-stakeholder involvement and generate public dialogue for future development policies of the country.
A team of International consultants with expertise in the field are currently preparing the first batch of thematic reports on fertility, mortality, migration/urbanisation, disability, population projections and population dynamics. Teams are made up of staff from the DoP, Planning, Statistics Office, Social Welfare and academia, thus encouraging a cross-departmental approach to social analysis and policy planning.
The authors will remain in-country for two months to build capacity that will allow Myanmar to conduct its own analysis in the future. Mr. Ricardo Neupert, from Chile and lead author of the Mortality Thematic Report, stressed the importance of on-the-job training as part of the production process to transfer knowledge in-country. “Government departments have participated very actively in the thematic orientation workshop and we look forward to starting production of the reports with the teams”.
Divided into groups by thematic area, participants gave their feedback on the proposed outline, including the list of indicators for each report. Mr. Liem Nguyen from Vietnam, and lead author for the thematic report on Disability, said: “Data users provide valuable information about the local context. They constitute a pool of experts with whom I will continue to consult throughout the production process”.
A second user consultation will take place towards the end of the production process to review the draft reports.
