EUROSTAT
Directorate D: External cooperation, communication and key indicators
Unit D-1: Statistical cooperation with European and Mediterranean countries /
Doc.TCG IV 02/2011
Matrix of the census key issues
Census Planning and ManagementLegal Framework / Data Confidentiality / Budget and Financing (including donors coordination) / Census Communication / Quality assurance
Census law adopted? / Data confidentiality ensured by census or statistical law?
Measures taken to ensure data confidentiality in the census / Is the census budget covered?
Problems and experience in fund raising – donors coordination / Communication strategy?
Communication towards minorities?
Media Plan?
Public relations
Budget estimate in % of total budget (if readily available) / Quality assessment issues – Evaluation of census results (PES, Precise what is foreseen)
Sample size of PES?
Albania / Law No.8669 dated 26.10.2000, on “The general CENCUS of Population and Dwellings”, amended with Law No.10084 dated 23.02.2009 “On several addition and amendments on the law “The general CENCUS of Population and Dwellings”,defines some changes on the regional responsibilities for the organization of the Census 2011.
Council of Minister decision dated 27.012010 On several addition and amendments on the Council Minister Decision “On the appointment of the Ministry of Internal Affair for the implementation of the public procurement procedures, on behalf of Prime Minister’s office, Ministries and other subordinate institutions for some goods and services” which facilitate the implementation of the process.
Council Minister Decision Nr.399 dated 22.04.2010 “On organization, competencies and composition of the Central Commission of the CENCUS” amended with decision date 27.01.2010.
Census commencement date established by the CCC. April 2-nd, 2011-under revision
Decrees of CoM-s “on the establishment,composition and competencies of the Population and Housing Census Commissions in the Regions” are approved by the CoM. / According Statistical law, article 15, Confidentiality.
Law No.8669 dated 26.10.2000, on “The general CENCUS of Population and Dwellings”, Article 9- Confidentially Guarantee.
From the IT part, the Census data will be stored in dedicated servers. Different users will have different access rights to the data, based on the security strategy. This can ensure data confidentiality.
INSTAT is part of the process of the national initiative on protection of personal data in Albania, for alignment with EU standards, supported by EU assistance. / The Census Budget is covered, 60% of which is covered by the donors’ contribution and 40% by the state budget.
The donors contributing to the Census process are European Commission through IPA, which is actually the major contributor along with the Albanian Government .The rest is covered by the UNFPA covering the GIS, SIDA covering the scanning system and UNDP covering some preparatory census work before taking place the field operations.
INSTAT, recently has been carefully checked the financial coverage and the availability of funds for all topics and activities related to CENSUS 2011. Following this it is already agreed that some additional activities to be undertaken will be financially supported by the Swiss Development Cooperation Office, such as PES, in depth post census analysis, publications and infrastructure establishment for data scanning and processing centre.
Besides formal and informal institutional communication of INSTAT with other relevant stakeholders, regular meetings are conducted and contacts are continuously kept with donors who take part of the Sector Working Group Statistics (SWGS) and with Donors Technical Secretariat. / As part of Census Communication, INSTAT has organizedconferences, roundtables and press releases to inform public about importance of census and take feedback from groups of interests and general public. Some of their comments has been reflected to the Census Questionnaires for the Pilot.The communication strategy it is planned and is in process, to be more focused during the second half of 2010.
A media plan is prepared which specifies the main publicity tools that will cover all activities till field work which is needed to educate and promote the importance of participation.
The overall objective of publicity campaign is to maximize the coverage of all sections of the population.As part of Public Relation is forecasted to make TV & Radio Interviews, Photo Calls, Baby promotion, Education Initiatives, events, Census at School etc.
For the Pilot, INSTAT made a moderate publicity campaign and prepared some information tools, like posters, leaflets which are delivered by enumerators to all selected areas for the pilot census.
Also meetings and workshops were organized to inform people about importance of the Census.
Some other activities are performed during this period like, interviews (TV and newspapers), meetings with groups of interest. The INSTAT websitehas been used for information as well.
Also, a new website of census is implemented and it’s ready. The process will facilitate the process of the communication with the users.
The communication strategy is finalized in which all the sectors were involved in providing inputs for a comprehensive and well conceived strategy.
This communication strategy has a detailed approach for all groups of the society particularly minorities and ethnic groups.
Census Unit is working on the planning process for the publicity items to be used and delivered during Census and for some special events to be organized during the Census period.
Posters, leaflets, and other publicity items are under process.
A special strategy dedicated to Roma people is under process because of the complexity this community represents.
Approximately the share of Publicity is 3.5% of total census budget / It is foreseen to be conducted for the first time a post enumeration census.
As a conclusion of the process of consultation with the line Ministries to have the Civil Register, a memorandum of understanding is signed between INSTAT and Ministry of Interior to have the Civil Register, and to put side by side the data from the two sources.
The PES is foreseen to be carried out right away after the enumeration of the census is finished. PES is financially covered by the Swiss Development Cooperation Office (SDC).
The PES sample size is planned to cover around 0.5 of total households.
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Census Methodology
Census methodology / Pilot Census / Census Mapping and GIS / Census Questionnaire / Enumeration of minorities, religion and language
Census date / Census period
Enumeration method
Use of the population register / When was the pilot census carried out?
General features of the pilot census (size of sample, selection of the EA). Main findings EA) / Situation of census mapping – updating of maps
Eventual links with an address system
. Plans for GIS dissemination of census results? / Final questionnaire available?
How were (are) users consulted?
Questionnaires translated in which languages (incl. English) / Question on ethnic affiliation / religion / languages included, yes/no, how is the question formulated
Problems, special measures to enumerate minorities, IDPs, refugees, diasporas?
Albania / The Census is planned on April 2, 2011 – under revision.
It is planned to be in the field about 3-4 weeks. Traditional Census with enumerators (not self-enumeration).
In accordance with the population register and the data obtained from the Census, a Statistical Population register is going to be created. / The pilot Census has been conducted on late April 2010. The size of the sample was 3100 households with 31 EA (13 rural areas and 18 urban areas) in Tiranë, Durrës, Vlorë, Dibër, Has, Peqin, Pukë, Gjirokastër and Korçë.The pilot structure was composed by 31 enumerators, 8 controllers and 4 supervisors.
The selection of EA-s for pilot has been very carefully carried out, such that to realistically test the whole technical and organisational structure with a sample of households which satisfactory represent the social, economic, demographic and geografic diversity of the population in the country.
In the selection process of pilot EA-s has been taken into consideration the inclusion of two areas with the minority population of greek and macedonians in Gjirokastra and Korça. Also, there has been included an area with roma people. In the areas with national and ethno-cultural minorities, INSTAT has organised team of enumarators with the representation from these minorities as well.
Although the discussions on the sensitive questions, field work during the pilot showed that the level of acceptance and the response rate resulted in a high percentage.
0.4% didn’t prefer to answer for the ethnic affiliation.
3.39% didn’t prefer to answer for the question on religion belonging.
Based on the pilot experience some issues raised like: (a) The questionnaire needed to be simplified (b) The trainingprocess needs to be delivered carefully in order that the enumerators are equipped with the appropriate professional and other skills to adequate fill in the questionnaires as per the requirement.
Based on the Pilot experience, the questionnaire is revised on the questions of employment, agriculture and disabilities. / The activities of census mapping are going on in all components.
Field work for mapping update is finished.
Digitalization and coding has started onMarch 2010 and is completed.
Data quality procedures are in process (typology, geometric attributes, etc)
-Terminate: 90%
Delineation of EA started and is on the completion phase.
Pilot Census Maps
For the first time in Albania, in Pilot Census there are used digitized maps. The pilot was conductedbased on geo-coded and delineated in total of 31 EA (urban and rural) in all country.
Eventual links with an address system
INSTAT is in contact with developments in address system project. However, it should be a system already functioning, with a quality assurance programme already implemented in order to allow the Statistical Office to use them for statistical needs.
It is worked to develop synergies between the two projects in the following two technical aspects: Street centerlineswith codes and street names implemented by the Address System Project should integrate in the census GIS database of INSTAT.
And Interoperability Implementation of a common framework to ensure interoperability between the spatial data sets developed in the two projects, as recommended by the European INSPIRE initiative.
Synergies in the above mentioned aspects could be developed to ensure consistency between the two systems.
Plans on GIS dissemination are:
Publications for GIS topics will include: (a) Publication of Census Population Atlas 2011; (b) Thematic maps, as part of census publications and analysis, (c) Creation of population GRID map for Albania; (d) Building a web GIS server. / The Census process and its questionnaires have been presented to all users, different stakeholders and other groups of interest via direct communications, presentations, consultations, written and electronic Medias, public debates, e-mails, etc. The pilot census questionnaires prepared by INSTAT’s experts were changed and improved after the consultations organized during the period from January till April 2010.
The draft questionnaires are published on INSTAT website. Meantime, INSTAT has launched a new website for CENSUS both in Albanian and English, where people can be informed on the process and its developments. The first twoeditions of Census bimonthly informative newsletter has been also set on this site, which will be followed by other editions. The results of the pilot Census will be also published on the website.
The improvement of the questionnaires will continue with the conclusions and lessons learned generated from the pilot census testing. Furthermore, another round of consultation process is planned to be organized during September - December 2010.
The questionnaires are available in 2 languages, Albanian and English.
As per the plan, the consultation process with the purpose of improving the questionnaire and its finalization has continued during 2010 and early January 2011.
Meetingon September 27-th, 2010 with the representatives of disability organizations has been organized
Meeting on November 18-th, 2010 with the representatives of the minorities and human rights organizations was organized.
Meeting on January 14-th, 2011 with Roma organizations was organized.
The final draft is under revision and soon will be finalized and approved by the CCC. / There is a great demand from our users to measure the data on the emigrants. It is a lot of people ling and working abroad. As the Census will report only the persons living for 12 months, it is important to have a good collaboration with the Censuses of the neighborhood countries, to make possible the data for this group of persons.
The individual questionnaire, used also for the pilot includes questions about ethnicity, religion and mother tongue. The ethnic and religion affiliation, based on free self-declaration, has been asked in the pilot census.
Information on these questions during the pilot has been collected through open questions.
During the pilot field work, there were no major problems encountered concerning these questions.
Census Logistics & IT
Fieldwork / Census Personnel / Other logistic / Data capture and editing / Data Analysis
Are the final questionnaires available?
How were (are) users consulted?
Census commissions, participation of regional/municipal/local authorities / Enumeration by personnel from minorities (in all categories of staff? which percentage? Problems of recruitment, language)
Training of census personnel (in all languages?) / Special problems to be mentioned (printing, etc.)
Application (internet, mobile, fax, other) for Census field work follow up and monitoring? / System selected for data capture (OCR/manual)
Software solution for data editing and imputation / Does a plan for data dissemination exist?
Are standard tabulations ready?
Electronic publications?
Census internet site?
Will data be prepared for/are there plans to participate in
Eurostat census hub?
Albania / The Census process and its questionnaires have been presented to all users, different stakeholders and other groups of interest via direct communications, presentations, consultations, written and electronic Medias, public debates, e-mails, etc. The pilot census questionnaires prepared by INSTAT’s experts were changed and improved after the consultations organized during the period from January till April 2010.
Some of the users and stakeholders consulted are:
- non-profit organizations, international organizations and donors community,
- Central and Local government authorities and their subsidiary institutions;
- Academic Community
- Organizations with special interests in particular issues (such as disability, minority, religion, etc.)
The draft questionnaires are published on INSTAT website. Meantime, INSTAT has launched a new website for CENSUS both in Albanian and English, where people can be informed on the process and its developments. The first cast of the Census bimonthly informative newsletter has been also set on this site, which is followed by other editions in regular order.
The improvement of the questionnaires has continued with the conclusions and lessons learned generated from the pilot census testing. Furthermore, consultation process has continued during 2010 and early January 2011.
The final approval will be taken by the Central Census Commissionsoon.
INSTAT’s staff in collaboration with the national expertise has been working on the establishment of the Census regional structures.The Decrees of CoM-s “on the establishment, composition and competencies of the Population and Housing Census Commissions in the Regions” are approved by the CoM.
These legislative documents establish the composition, the competencies and the flow of information and decision making channels between the Census structures.Census commissions in the local level (Region, Municipality and Commune) will be composed by all the governmental representatives in order to reach the very best from all the stakeholders involved. / The census personnel will include 12,000 enumerators,the number of controllers estimated is about 2400 and the number of supervisors estimated is 200.The TORs for the staff on the field are already prepared.
The idea is that the enumerators should be teachers, to know very well the area and the people around. Each of them it will be responsible for enumeration of 80-120 families. Since the list of the teachers to be engaged in the process is still under the preparation we don’t know yet thepercentage of personnel from minorities. The training will be hold in Albanian language.
Training of almost 100 persons of the field staff and INSTAT’ staff of regional offices was organized with a duration of 5 days. The training was organized simultaneously combining theory and practice through role plays, etc.
In the pilot Census were involved 31 enumerators from the areas were the Pilot Census was carried out. For the first time in this process, INSTAT, recruited teachers as enumerators, from the areas selected for testing. Since the data capture will be done through scanning system for the first time, we considered the option of using teachers as enumerators.
The recruitment process was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.
Among the selected enumerators, 3 of them were representatives of the minority population of the EAs in the regions of Gjirokastra and Korça, as well as in an area of Tirana with roma people. / During printing process, special attention was given to the required quality and standard of the questionnaires printed. Many tests were made with samples from different printing houses in order to guarantee the proper quality.
There is foreseen that all the census offices in the regions will be equipped with all necessary facilities such as telephone/fax and internet for the better functioning of systematic communication and monitoring of activities. Possibilities for mobile communication are under discussion and are planned to be solved as soon as IPA assistance starts. / Census 2011 in Albania will use scanning system for the data capture. The technology selected for data capture is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
By finishing the field work for the pilot by end of May 2010 the questionnaires are already scanned and a digital copy of each of the questionnaire is archived in a dedicated server.
The operators verified the scanned data. The final data now are stored in a SQL Server database. At the database level, the staff is proceeding with coding and data cleaning. At the next phase, the data will be manipulating using SAS.