This session of the Friday seminar on Innovation and Modernisation of Official Statistics will bring together Chief Statisticians to discuss the use of administrative data sources for producing population and housing census data. The current round of censuses has been witnessing a growing interest in the use of administrative data sources. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the difficulties caused by it, has accelerated existing initiatives to utilize administrative data sources in a significant number of countries all over the world.

There are many reasons for exploring administrative registers for producing census information, including : (a) the need to produce accurate, reliable and more frequent statistics (on a yearly basis); (b) high costs of conducting field enumeration and budgetary limitations for census taking; (c) reluctance of the population to participate in the census (for instance, during the COIVD-19 pandemic); and (d) availability of administrative registers for statistical purposes. On the other hand, there are certain challenges regarding the use of administrative registers, including the quality of existing administrative registers, lack of legal framework for the use of individual records for statistical production, and institutional capacity in establishing and maintaining statistical registers.

Changing the design of census processes from the traditional method to one that is relying on administrative data sources is a core part of the strategy of many NSOs to develop a register-based statistical system. This will require a pragmatic shift in the way official statistics are produced. This seminar will discuss the process of transitioning and challenges in planning and managing this process, particularly those related to political and public support; legal framework; engagement of stakeholders; confidentiality issues; operational considerations and strengthening institutional capacity. The seminar will also provide an opportunity to learn from experiences of countries that are at different stages of this transition.

Citizens' contribution to data, broadly defined as the engagement of citizens in multiple processes in the data value chain, is increasingly recognized as critical to helping overcome many data challenges of our times. In particular, in the context of the 2030 Agenda's principle to ensure that nobody is left behind, citizen data helps fill critical data gaps for groups suffering from data marginalization and increase the extent to which their experiences are reflected in national statistics. In addition to filling data gaps, some citizen data initiatives provide insights into harmful customary practices as well as further advance important values such as fairness, inclusiveness, openness and transparency in statistics.

Citizens' contribution to data could happen at different levels - global, regional, national, or local. The engagement of citizens can be organized by different stakeholders - scientists, community leaders, civil society organisations (CSOs), or individual citizens. Their engagement can contribute to various stages of the data value chain and serve different objectives and contribute to data and policy in many different ways.

The official statistical community also increasingly recognizes the importance of non-state actors in contributing to the inclusiveness of official statistics. For data collection such as censuses and surveys, national statistical offices (NSOs) often partner with CSOs or representatives of marginalized population groups to ensure the inclusiveness of the data and methodology.

Unleashing the full potential of citizens for data, however, faces many challenges. These, for example, include the lack of trust between the state and non-state actors, data quality, sustainability and statistical capacity of CSOs, etc. In this context, the United Nations Statistics Division organized an Expert Group Meeting on Harnessing data by citizens for public policy and SDG monitoring: a conceptual framework in November 2022. The meeting discussed different ways that citizens can contribute to data, as well as challenges and opportunities and mechanisms to harness citizens' contribution to fill data gaps and advance fairness, inclusiveness, openness and transparency in statistics. The meeting was attended by representatives from National Statistics Offices (NSOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), academia and regional and international organisations. The meeting agreed that the development of a framework would be an important next step to help conceptualize the different ways citizens can contribute to data and support the formulation of action points for the community to move forward. The meeting also agreed to establish a Collaborative as a platform for collaboration and exchange of experiences and to advance the work in this area.