Conducting Census Under Adverse Conditions; Challenges and Lessons Learned
Hasan ABU-LIBDEH
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
P.O.Box 1647, Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: 972-2-240 6340/Fax: 972-2-240 6343
Email:
Abstract
The Palestinian Census of 1997 was the first ever to be conducted under a Palestinian national authority. This census might be one of very few sovereign statistical exercises involving populations, housing units, and economic establishments within areas of different security controls. The Palestinian census was planned and conducted under unique political and socioeconomic conditions.
The paper considers the Palestinian experience of conducting a population census in absence of political stability, ignorance of stakeholders, competing priorities, and lack of technical infrastructure. It focuses on the major challenges, recommendations, and lessons learned from experience in invoking stakeholder’s interest, organizing fieldwork activities, setting up the organizational structure, and utilization of the statistics in socioeconomic planning
Conducting Census Under Adverse Conditions; Challenges and Lessons Learned
Hasan ABU-LIBDEH
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
P.O.Box 1647, Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: 972-2-240 6340/Fax: 972-2-240 6343
Email:
1. Introduction:
The census is a crucial undertaking in the life of any official statistical system. The United Nations recommends conducting Population censuses on regular basis to obtain a comprehensive set of data about population size, composition and characteristics. Such data are essential for economic and social development.
A population and housing census should satisfy users’ needs within the government and public at large. Usually, the census should be carefully planned in order to produce the most relevant statistics for users. The objective of any census should be achieved with the desired degree of accuracy of results and lowest cost.
Being the single most expensive and laborious statistical activity within any country, the overall census planning and implementation should involve stakeholders from the government, research community, and public at large. These consultations should lead to choosing topics for the census which are of national importance, meet the needs of policy makers and strategists, and which maintain international comparability.
The census usually produces information which is essential for the statistical system of the country. It updates the population estimates, sampling frames, population registers, dwelling registers, small area population estimates, concepts and definitions used in household based surveys, and a golden opportunity for developing new information based technologies. Data quality of a census is a function of the overall process of planning, implementation, and analysis. The quality of census data is a function of the whole census planning and implementation process. It comes as a result of soundly developed questionnaires, instruction manuals, cartography, fieldwork operations, tabulation plans, and data processing strategies.
The planning for the first-ever Palestinian census has started within one month of launching the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, PCBS, in the fall of 1993. Population counting was conducted four years later, in December 1997. The census covered all of the Occupied Palestinian Territory including Jerusalem, OPT,[1] except those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed by Israel in 1967[2]. During enumeration of dwellings and population counting, Israeli authorities have conducted an extensive campaign against Palestinian census teams in Jerusalem, including the arrest of scores of fieldworkers, declaring those areas where census teams worked as closed military areas, and passing a law outlawing Palestinian census activities in Jerusalem, thus preventing the census teams from collecting statistical information about the Palestinians of Jerusalem.
PCBS successfully fielded the first ever Population, Housing and Establishment Census for the Occupied Palestinian Territory including Jerusalem, OPT, in December 1997. The findings of the Post-Enumeration Study (PES) confirmed the high quality of the fieldwork and the high-level of cooperation and response from the public at large.
The Census team and National Committee overlooking the census operations achieved the objective of projecting the Census as a national event of high importance, involving volunteers, students and teachers from all districts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the various stages of enumeration.
The preliminary results of the census were published within six weeks of the end of population counting. The results included cross tabulations on the de-facto population as well as their distribution by region, type of locality and governorates, disaggregated by sex. The results also provided estimates for the overall population currently considered permanent residents of the OPT, which include the de-facto population, estimates for non-response (from the PES) and the population of the annexed part of Jerusalem (which was estimated[3]).
The final results of the census, at the national level, were released within eleven months of enumeration[1]. It included a set of 300 tables covering all priority areas concerning national needs and the recommendation of the international statistical guidelines for census tabulation. At the governorates level, however, an additional set of summary tables, by population agglomeration, were produced and disseminated together with a set of detailed reports for population and housing conditions which were produced and disseminated at the national, regional and governorate levels. By the end of 2000, a set of “city reports” for population and housing conditions and a set of detailed topical reports were produced and disseminated at the national level.
This census represented a turning point in the Palestinian efforts to setup an effective official statistical system for Palestine. It gave the Palestinian government a real opportunity towards nation building based on rigorous and sound information needed for development planning. Moreover, the small area statistics emerging from the census have allowed Palestinian communities greater chance of empowerment and drafting sound policies on the basis of well-informed platforms about their communities.
The Palestinian census was an exercise, which required the involvement of all parts of the society, and was the largest project ever implemented with the full cooperation, coordination and collaboration of all Palestinian ministries, civil society institutions, and individuals. By default, such involvement has empowered the civil society as a whole.
2. Census Planning
Being the first-ever statistical exercise coinciding with the formulation of a self-governing authority for a population, which has been living under foreign occupation for many years, the Palestinian census was unique indeed in many aspects.
The Census of 1997 was conducted with active technical and financial support from UNFPA, DESEAPA, UNSD, CST (UNFPA Country Support Team) in Amman-Jordan, and financial support from UK, Switzerland, Norway, and the World Bank. Apart from being the first ever to be planned and executed by Palestinians, the census was planned and executed during very adverse conditions, which required very special attention. The census planning team has to work with several competing parameters involving methodology, scope, coverage, content, and schedule. For example, while census planning assumed full sovereignty of the target population, parts of the country is still under foreign occupation.
The census was planned for the Palestinian Territory, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, these areas are known as West Bank, including Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Census operations required three full years of planning and one year for releasing final and detailed results. Long forms were used for the whole population, leading to applying a set of questionnaires containing more than 77 questions altogether.
The socio-economic and political conditions of the country were challenging in terms of allowing for the conduct of a meaningful reliable census, and obtaining reliable data. These conditions were thought to be of detrimental impact on the census operations as a whole, and on the quality of output sought in particular. Special attention and treatment tailored to overcome these conditions were injected into the census planning. These conditions included;
¨ Those mostly external to the Palestinian society and government, such as the continued Israeli occupation or security control of most of the land, and control of more than 15% of the population (lack of clear boundaries, lack of sovereign territory).
¨ Those that are mostly internal to the Palestinian society and government, such as lack of past experience of the population with census operations, tendency of people to associate statistical activities with tax collection, as well as population composition of residents that are considered “legally living in the country”, or considered “illegally living in the country”, or considered “outside the scope of official Palestinian practices as classified by the Oslo agreement”. During the first and second pilot surveys, we even found that some people were skeptical about the confidentiality of census returns due the fact that the Palestinian voter register, which is maintained by PCB, is a public document, and that the population register is maintained jointly by the Israeli and Palestinian governments.
To understand the uniqueness of the Palestinian census, a brief account of reality is in order. The Palestinian Territory of West Bank, including Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, which was occupied by Israel in 1967, amounts to approximately 6,400 km2. The past thirty years of occupation have resulted in a de facto division of the country into three parts; West Bank excluding the Jerusalem area, Jerusalem which was annexed by Israel after 1967 occupation, and Gaza Strip. Movement between these three parts is strictly controlled by Israel. Individuals cannot move from one segment to the other without a written permission from the Israeli military forces. The Israeli forces apply military laws and emergency rules to the areas. They can, at any time, declare any part of the country as a closed military area, impose curfews, and bar persons and goods from passing through any of these parts of the country. Before the Census, the population was estimated at 2.6 million. In addition, more than 300,000 Israeli colonial settlers live in the territory. The population of the Palestinian Territory is composed of a majority of ordinary citizens, several thousands of PLO members, who have returned to the area as a result of the Oslo agreements, several thousands of Bedouins, residents who live in the annexed part of Jerusalem, residents of Jerusalem who live in West Bank (they are considered as absentees by Israeli imposed laws on Jerusalem), Palestinians who are living “illegally from the Israeli point of view” in the territory, and Palestinian “militants” who are opposing the peace process and live underground. In addition, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who are currently living outside the territory maintain strong ties with local residents.
Planning, implementation, and evaluation of the census would have been meaningless without considering the uniqueness of the Palestinian case. In other words, the Palestinian census had to be planned and executed for a politically troubled area, which is going through a very rapid and rough socio-economic transition, and barely coming out of a long period of occupation. Special precautions, procedures, and treatments were developed to minimize the impact of the listed conditions on the quality of the census. Among these are;
► The Israeli government was informed of our plans for fieldwork operations ahead of time. The Palestinian side of the joint Palestinian-Israeli liaison committee had taken all measures to insure minimal interferences of Israeli military forces in the movement of census takers and transportation of census returns. Movement within areas controlled by Israel was always supervised and monitored by Palestinian security forces, dressed as civilians.
► Fieldwork management and operations, as well as storage and distribution of stationary, equipment, and census material, were totally decentralized. In fact, census material was distributed some three weeks ahead of census day.
► Backup fieldwork teams were trained and assigned to be on call for the duration of the enumeration period. These teams were used upon detention of scores of fieldworkers during the first three days of enumeration by Israeli military forces.
► An emergency committee was established within each community to assume responsibility for fieldwork in case of emergency resulting from weather or political conditions.
► Intensive campaigning was carried out using all means, including mosques and churches, to assure the public of the confidentiality of census returns. The campaign emphasized the confidentiality aspect relating tax authorities, and the residents of Jerusalem who were treated in a special way, allowing them not to respond to questions that could affect their rights in Jerusalem, as well as “illegal” residents who were given certain guarantees for protection of their whereabouts. The ministry of finance took an active part in the campaign.
3. Meeting User demand and expectations from census output
From the outset of census planning, we have opted for open and constructive relationship with users through User-Producer Dialogue, UPD. This approach serves stakeholders in their quest for information, and producers in their efforts for reaching the stage of being demand driven and relevant. The process of UPD in Palestine includes a mix of approaches, which vary from the more classical and well-tested methods, to the country specific methods tailored to meet the challenges resulting from existing sociopolitical conditions. UPD has assumed several forms in the course of the last five years including seminars, workshops, and study days. The forward looking and openness in relation to users has earned the census team a very respected standing in the country.
In preparing for the implementation of the dissemination plan, PCBS undertook a series of workshops about the utilization of the census findings. Professionals attended these workshops from various ministries (Planning, Housing, Industry, Postl and Communications, Agriculture, Health, Labor, Interior, Education, Higher Education, Local Government), Universities and Research Institutions, NGOs, media and newspapers. The themes which were discussed throughout these workshops, as well as other internal meetings within PCBS, included:
· Assessment of relevance of the pre-prepared draft tabulation plans and their responsiveness to various users’ needs.
· Proposed methodologies for dissemination and approaches for the utilization of findings within government.
· Relevant frameworks and models for updating various plans/programs on the basis of census findings.
· Priorities for areas to be addressed through in-depth analysis.
· National capacity requirements for achieving the above mentioned objectives.
· Strengthened developments planning process to improve government services and facilitate social development and economic growth
The main findings of these workshops and the specialized meetings were instrumental in identifying the needs at various levels (government, NGOs, private sector), as well as for different topics, especially gender concerns, which were thoroughly discussed during the planning workshops. However, these needs were generally broad, reflecting a specific interest per ministry and they usually combine requirements to utilize census findings in conjunction with other components of the national statistical system.