1. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka The Development of Central Survey Catalogue – Department of Census and Statistics [DCS] SRI LANKA Presented by S.A.S.Bandulasena, Deputy Director - Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka at the OECD/PARIS21 Steering committee meeting Nov 5-7,2008 Paris, France

2. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Contents 1. National Statistical System 2. Classification of our Surveys 3. Progress (in brief….) 4. Some Issues Faced by DCS 1.Central Statistical Agency………… 2.How the Centralization Helps 3.Operating Costs 4.Research Culture 5.Demand for Data 6.Dissemination 5. Conclusion

3. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka National Statistics System (NSS) Legislation Census OrdinanceStatistics Ordinance DCS DIVISIONS Statistical branches in Ministries/Depts. Statistical branches in District Secretariats Statistics officer in Div. Secretariats Statistical Activities of DCS Statistical Data Other National & International Agencies Statistical Activities/ Administrative Record Keeping Statistical Activities Statistical Data Other Govt. Institutions Own Stat. branches of Ministries/ Depts.

4. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Classification of Our Surveys CensusSurveyAdmin Records Population & Housing 5 Industry210 Agriculture230 Demograph y & Health 9 Income & Exp 7 Labour Force 16 Vital Statistics 39 Other79033

5. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Progress (in brief….) Started - January 2008 Microdata Lab – in operation Training – MMT workshops (2) for 35 people. NADA training for 5 people Archiving – 150 out of 350 datasets have been archived (the catalogue will be published this month on the DCS website for internal users ) -- The staff trained in MMT assist us on a part time basis to complete the whole thing next year.

6. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Some Issues Faced by DCS Central Statistical Agency – but not the coordinator for the other national/international agencies Operational Costs – ever increasing Research Culture – staff needs more research experience Demand for data – Demand and Investment to be justified Dissemination – Staff occupied with tabulation work

7. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Central Statistical Agency…. but is not the coordinator for the other non Govt. agencies Possible outcomes : duplication of surveys, contradicting figures, quality differences, non-standard practices and so forth. However coordination among the Govt. statistical units are satisfactory as most of their key positions are manned with DCS’ technical staff. Benefits to DCS from ADP By setting up the Central Survey Catalogue, DCS will win the credibility of the other statistics agencies of the country. This will enable DCS to initiate talks with other agencies on appointing a national statistical coordinator. How?

8. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka How the centralization helps Thanks to NADA, meta data are available for viewing by the local and overseas agencies as well as the researchers. Expect an increase in the number of inquiries made on surveys. More frequent interaction of technical staff with the outside How the Centralization helps Thanks to NADA, metadata are available for viewing by the local and overseas agencies as well as the researchers. Expect an increase in the number of inquiries made on surveys with the implementation of centralization. More frequent interactions of technical staff with the outside world (presently rare). Opportunity to display our professional strengths.

9. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Operating Costs – ever increasing Documentation expenditure – less filing of stationery will be needed. Record room costs – record room capacities could be reduced and cost will be saved. Survey design costs in terms of time and effort – no need to start a survey from scratch. Information localizing in different Divisions – All the details will be in a central repository.

10. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Research Culture Staff needs more research experience An improved microdata archive will allow the researchers to get at survey data without much hassle. Availability of metadata will widen the knowledge of researchers and the interested students alike. Thus DCS will encourage staff researchers to be involved in more and more analyses work and create a new research culture.

11. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Demand for data Making Microdata catalogues available on the web will expand the user community Nationally and Internationally and the role of DCS will be very much prominent. This way, the credibility of DCS among the various Data users will be secured and the demand for data and the investment will be justified.

12. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Dissemination Staff occupied with tabulation work… More than presenting tables, DCS can allow the staff to devote more time in doing research using the microdata. This will be beneficial to the country. Also it will form a team of staff very strong in statistical analyses. Recently DCS has done a very important research study on Poverty, the findings of which were extensively used by the Govt. policymakers to uplift the poor. This study was based on the microdata gathered from various recent surveys and censuses.

13. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Conclusion Challenges - Documenting balance datasets will be a challenge. 1. Few datasets are in EBCDIC, have to convert to ASCII format. 2. Metadata are not readily available for some past data sets.

14. Department of Census and Statistics - Sri Lanka Thank you