Source: World Bank (Data extracted on: 30 Jul 2024 )
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Organizer(s): World Bank
Description: The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the World Bank’s flagship household survey program, is organizing The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era conference, which will take place on December 10, 2024, at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This one-day conference will celebrate four years of the LSMS conducting longitudinal High-Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS) in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Initially launched to address data and knowledge gaps related to the COVID-19 pandemic, these surveys facilitate routine monitoring of large-scale events, such as health emergencies or extreme weather, and their socioeconomic impacts on communities. They have had a transformative impact on national statistical and data systems, complementing existing in-person survey infrastructure with high-frequency data collection on policy-relevant topics. To date, more than 100 survey rounds and 200,000 interviews have been completed across the six countries. The Pulse of Progress: Harnessing High-Frequency Survey Data for Development Research in the Polycrisis Era aims to showcase applied research that leverages high-frequency phone survey data, including but not limited to the LSMS-HFPS, as the primary data source for addressing substantive questions in development economics and related fields.
Description: As an integral part of the national data ecosystem, integrating household surveys with other data sources has become paramount to produce data that are more comprehensive, inclusive and timely. Such integration also helps improve quality and efficiency of household surveys. Improving sampling efficiency and coverage is one of the eight technical priorities of the "Positioning Household Surveys for the Next Decade", a paper prepared by the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys to guide the Group its support to national statistical offices. In this context, the UN Statistics Division and the National Bureau of Statistics of China are co-organising an international seminar on Integrating Household Surveys with diverse data sources. The seminar aims to foster knowledge exchange, explore innovative approaches, and address challenges related to survey data integration and interoperability. You are invited to submit abstracts (max. 250 words) for the technical meeting, focusing on one or more of the following aspects: - Practical experiences in negotiating data access with other data owners and in maintaining ethical standard and data confidentiality. - Experiences and work undertaken to improve interoperability of household surveys by design. - Methods used to build a multi-source frame for sampling. - Innovative approaches to integrate household survey with other data sources such as censuses, other surveys, administrative data and nontraditional data such as remote sensing, mobile phone positioning data, social media data and citizen-generated data. This may include record linkage or modelling. - Quality considerations for data integration and integrated data. We have limited funding for experts from low-income and lower-middle income countries. Deadline for submitting your abstract: 15 September 2024 (if you are interested in applying for funding) and 30 September otherwise. https://forms.office.com/e/LJY6Zxzsic.
Title in Spanish: Seminario regional sobre innovaciones y desafíos en encuestas de hogares
Organizer(s): ECLAC AI Generated
Description: El Seminario busca fomentar el intercambio de experiencias y buenas prácticas, promoviendo el uso de nuevas metodologías y tecnologías, con el fin de mejorar la precisión, comparabilidad y accesibilidad de la información estadística, garantizando su utilidad para la toma de decisiones basadas en evidencia.
Source: ESCAP SIAP (Data extracted on: 27 Nov 2024 )
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Organizer(s): ESCAP SIAP SPC
Description: The transition from paper and pencil interviewing (PAPI) to computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) has been one of the key hallmarks of national statistical offices’ (NSO) efforts to adopt efficient and cost-effective new technologies and modernize the collection and production of official statistics. CAPI combines the advantages of face-toface interviewing with the efficiency and accuracy of computer technology and brings several efficiencies including(i) improving data qualityreducing the time lag between data collection and data analysis; (ii) increasing the speed of data turnaround and release; and (iii) enabling significant savings in fieldwork and data processing costs.Like other subregionsthe Pacific Islands countries and territories havesince 2010embraced the transition to CAPI using Survey Solutions. While there has been significant investment in the new technology as well as national level support and training from the Pacific Community (SPC) for the conduct of surveys and censuseshigh staff turnover and capability gaps in the Pacific subregion necessitate continuous training to further strengthen existing capacity. Furthermorethe report of the 2023 capacity needs assessment conducted by SPC reveals a skills gap of 65% in data collection and places demand for training in collection applications (Survey Solutions) as one of the highest priorities for NSOs. This finding corroborated with the results of the 2023 Training Needs Assessment undertaken by the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP).
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 07 Mar 2024 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat Statistics Norway
Description: To create an awareness of the possibilities and challenges of mixed mode questionnaire design generally, and for IESS surveys specifically.
Target Audience: Pretesting, data collection and subject matter specialists conducting or planning mixed mode data collection for social surveys covered by the IESS framework regulation.
Description: Unit nonresponse in surveys, which occurs when selected units cannot be reached or refuse to participate, is a common issue when conducting surveys. One option to address these non-responses is through weighting techniques in post-data collection adjustments, which existing survey statistics literature has primarily focused on. However, substitution presents an alternative approach during data collection itself. While substitution is commonly used already, ongoing concerns exist about its impact on nonresponse bias. Still, under certain conditions, substitution can mitigate bias while preserving essential aspects of sample designs typically disrupted by nonresponse. Despite its practical application, theoretical research on substitution remains limited, especially in the context of longitudinal surveys using face-to-face interviews as a sample frame. This webinar will offer preliminary results of a study evaluating the use of matching substitution in longitudinal surveys, drawing data from the MICS and MICS Plus conducted in Georgia and Nigeria. Specifically, it will examine the “matching substitution” approach (Zanutto, 1998; Rubin and Zanutto, 2002; Nishimura, 2015), used by MICS Plus, which deterministically selects a substitute that most resembles the nonrespondent with respect to auxiliary variables observed across all units in the population.
Description: The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) produces more than 500 state and national reports a year and conducts a census of the nation’s 2.0 million farmers once every five years. At the heart of the Agency’s current data collection strategy is its ability to persuade a respondent to voluntarily respond to surveys. Respondents are becoming less willing to participate in surveys and demands for statistics and secure data access are becoming increasingly challenging. The gold standard to produce official statistics has been probability-based sample surveys for many years. Yet, the environment for obtaining information and providing statistical summaries to policy makers and the public is changing. At the same time, new technology and data sources provide opportunities to reduce the burden on the public by reducing the number of survey questions or even eliminating surveys while increasing timeliness, geographic or subpopulation detail, and statistical efficiency. This webinar will present practical approaches and techniques to data collection and provide examples of how technological advances and new procedures like the use of administrative and previously reported data can be used to enhance the experience for data providers and data users. This presentation will also share how the USDA-NASS plans to improve accessibility, ease of use, and access to data through modernizing data collection and product design.
Description: In this Global Network Webinar, Sophie Mitra of Fordham University and the Disability Data Initiative presented on the use of household surveys and population censuses to monitor the inequalities that affect persons with disabilities: recent evidence from the Disability Data Initiative. The speaker shared recent developments and highlighted research opportunities related to the situation of adults with disabilities worldwide. Based on recent results from the Disability Data Initiative, the webinar: (i) discussed various approaches to collect and analyze data on disability in household surveys and population censuses, in particular with respect to the types of questions used and how to analyze answer scales on severity; (ii) documented how and where questions on functional difficulties using the internationally tested Washington Group Short Set or similar questions have been adopted around the world; and (iii) presented results of analyses of Demographic and Health Survey and census data on whether persons with disabilities are being left behind in 15 countries. The webinar was attended by 44 colleagues from across the globe, including those from national statistical offices, UN resident coordinator offices, civil society, and academia. The recording is available on the Global Network. The Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians aims to improve coordination and collaboration among peers and organizations, to connect existing but not necessarily wellconnected networks and initiatives, and to provide and share information on capacity building efforts globally. In the framework of the Global Network UNSD organizes a series of webinars. For more information visit our information pages.
Description: This webinar was jointly organized by the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) and the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians. We welcomed Marcelo Pitta, Thiago Meireles, and Pedro Silva from the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.Br) and the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE) who presented on the topic of leveraging non-probability samples and organic data for producing public statistics. The use of non-probability samples and of non-designed organic data for producing reliable public statistics is now a hot field of study and academic production. Such alternative data sources have been growing in importance due to the increasing demand for more timely and disaggregated data, resource constraints, and the increasing non-response associated with conventional probability sample surveys. Substantial body of emerging literature aims to enable official and public statistics producers to cope with the challenges presented by using such alternative data sources, namely the potential biases created by selection effects or undercoverage. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded this scenario and increased the difficulties already faced by statistics producers. In this context, some experiments were developed to produce public data from alternative data sources in the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), a non-profit organization responsible for the planning, evaluation, and monitoring of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Brazil. Here we present the approaches adopted in two projects developed to fulfil the information needs of policymakers and civil society for insights into Internet usage and Internet quality. The first experience focused on Internet usage and adopted a designed non-probability sample of internet users conducted via web self-interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second experience involved estimating from a large, non-designed organic database of Internet quality measurements taken in self-selected schools. For the Internet usage survey, a web panel, initially selected utilizing quota sampling, was surveyed to assess emerging policy-relevant topics such as privacy and e-waste among Internet users. The survey was developed in response to the urgent need for Internet usage data during the COVID-19 pandemic, in a period when traditional face-to-face household surveys were infeasible. For the Internet quality study, our experience comprised determining pseudo-weights for Brazilian public basic education schools participating in a voluntary scheme where measurements of internet quality are regularly reported to the NIC.br via the ‘Simet’ devices installed in the schools. While not all public schools have installed the Simet devices, we have developed an approach to leverage existing School Census data to estimate pseudo-weights for the participating schools, thus enabling the production of Internet quality estimates for the entire school population while minimizing response bias.
Description: Two broad categories of voices may be missing in household survey data. The first is people from types of households that are often missed – the very rich and the very poor; and marginalized groups such as indigenous people, unhoused people, or those living in institutional settings. The second category is people who live in households that are surveyed, but whose voices are missed when only one member of the household is interviewed. For instance, when only the household head is interviewed, the voices of women, youth, and the elderly may not be heard. This webinar will present recent research on ways to ensure that data is collected on all members of the household as well as to show the added value of exploring the insights gained when more than one person in the household is interviewed.
Description: Weighting is one of the major components in survey sampling. For a given sample survey, to each unit of the selected sample is attached a weight that is used to obtain estimates of population parameters of interest (e.g. means, totals, rates). The weighting process usually involves three steps: (i) obtain the design weights, which account for sample selection; (ii) adjust these weights to compensate for nonresponse; (iii) adjust the weights so that the estimates coincide to some population figures known from external trusted sources. The principle behind estimation in a probability survey is that each sample unit represents not only itself, but also several units of the survey population. The design weight of a unit usually refers to the average number of units in the population that each sampled unit represents. This weight is determined by the sampling method and is an important part of the estimation process. While the design weights can be used for estimation, most surveys produce a set of estimation weights by adjusting the design weights to improve accuracy of the final estimates. Once the final estimation weights have been calculated, they are applied to the sample data in order to compute estimates. The ILO Department of Statistics, in collaboration with the ITCILO, is proud to offer the Online course "Weighting Methods & Strategies". This course is directly linked to the course "Sampling Design: A Practical Approach" planned to take place in the spring of 2023 as both courses complement each other. Both courses are considered a learning journey that qualifies the learner to understand comprehensively Sampling design & weighting. Hence, attending both courses is strongly recommended for a fulfilling learning journey.
Target Audience: This course requires basic knowledge of statistics and probability! - It requires basic capacity to run procedures on statistical software using syntax (e.g. Stata do files, Spss syntax files, R scripts, Sas program files, etc.), and in particular with R3. The target audience includes: - Statisticians and practitioners from national statistical offices that have a role in designing household surveys samples.
Description: The course aims to enhance national capacities in the latest, most up-to-date statistical sampling techniques and methods, survey planning and data weights.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 03 Feb 2023 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat EFTA Statistics Norway
Description: To create an awareness of the possibilities and challenges of mixed mode questionnaire design generally, and for IESS surveys specifically.
Target Audience: Pretesting, data collection and subject matter specialists conducting or planning mixed mode data collection for social surveys covered by the IESS framework regulation.
Jointly organized by the Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) and the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians, the webinar discusses various approaches to be integrated and implemented in future household surveys – within existing household survey programs and country-specific household surveys. The speakers will explore both customization and integration of data elements proposed in the paper for major household programs and the opportunities for technical support provided to National Statistical Offices (NSOs) by the Expert Group on Refugee, IDP and Statelessness Statistics (EGRISS) on the integration of identification questions in stand-alone national surveys. The webinar will be presented by UNHCR, MICS and a national presentative. More information about this work is available at EGRISS and JDC.
Description: This webinar was jointly organized by the Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) and the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians. We welcomed speakers from the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) who presented on qualitative research with statistically under-represented groups within the Office for National Statistics. Qualitative research methods typically involve the collection and analysis of non-numerical data, such as people’s accounts of their experiences, needs and priorities, and perspectives. Their inclusiveness, and ability to help researchers understand nuanced topics and maintain rigour with sample sizes much smaller than typical statistical research makes them perfect for investigating the experiences of groups who are typically under-represented in survey data. The Qualitative Research Team at the ONS specialises in using methods such as in-depth interviews and focus groups to carry out exploratory projects, helping to understand the lived experiences of groups and communities who may not be otherwise counted due to issues of trustworthiness, being missed via the traditional data collection pathways, or the inability to disaggregate due to small sample sizes. The team have carried out 5 projects over the past 3 years, working with groups identified by the Inclusive Data Taskforce as under-represented in UK data. They shared an overview of their work with the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians to demonstrate the value of qualitative research and analysis both alone and as used alongside statistical data.
Description: The definition of statistical units is a recurring issue in the domain of sample surveys. Indeed, not all the populations surveyed have a readily available sampling frame. For these populations, the sampled units are distinct from the observation units, which constitute the population of interest on which we are willing to infer. This issue has been raised for a long time for studying populations that are difficult to reach, e.g. homeless people.To deal with this issue, Deville and Lavallée (2006: Surv. Methodol., 32(2), 165-176) proposed the so-called weight share method. It is based on a principle of duality between the sampled population and the observed population, where a variable of interest defined on the observed population may be written as a synthetic variable defined on the sampling frame. Because it creates a link between the observation units and the sampling units, this method enables the properties of the sampling design to be used to define unbiased estimators of totals for the observed populations, and to derive variance formulas.This work deals with the extension of this method to the case when the sampled population is a continuous frame. We are particularly interested in applications encountered in forest inventories, in which it is common practice to use a sample of points selected in a continuum and then fixed-shape supports defined from these points to perform the survey on a discrete population of trees. The approach which consists of transporting a variable from the discrete population to the continuous population is not new, see for example Stevens and Urquhart (2000: Environmetrics, 11, 13-41) or Gregoire and Valentine (2007: CRC Press). However, the link between the units from the population sampled and the units of the target population are only implicit in these works. The weight share method is a very useful and simple tool to formalize this approach, and enables one to produce general formulas for both point estimators and variance estimators. We will present an application of this approach for formalizing estimation and variance estimation in the French National Forest Inventory. We will also present a possible application to spatial cluster sampling. This is based on joint work with Olivier Bouriaud (Université de Suceava, IGN), Philippe Brion (Irmar), Trinh Duong (IGN) and Minna Pulkkinen (IGN).
Description: This webinar was jointly organized by the Inter-secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) and the Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians. XIAO Ning, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Household Surveys, and LIAN Jiajia, Director of the Division of Household Monitoring Survey of the Department of Household Surveys, from the National Bureau of Statistics of China gave a presentation on a Brief Introduction to Household Survey in China. The webinar focused on China’s practices of conducting household survey, including the organization, sampling design, data collection, quality control and data release. Challenges and future plan were also shared in the presentation.
Organizer(s): Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian Network on Survey Statistics University of Helsinki, Finland
Description: The 6th Baltic-Nordic Conference on Survey Statistics provides an international forum for sharing new results and ideas in survey statistics and data science research and application. The conference is organized by the Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian Network on Survey Statistics and University of Helsinki.
Sampling issues in times of Covid-19: Applications at National Statistical Offices
Planned for: Q3 2023
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 01 Nov 2022 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat Icon-Institut
Description: To learn state of the art techniques in survey sampling.
Target Audience: NSI statisticians dealing with surveys faced with the challenge to change data collection methods such as mixed mode strategies and adaptive survey designs. Additionally they face the use of administrative data and big data in the survey design and weighting stage.
Description: Established by the UN Statistical Commission in 2015, the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) aims to foster improvement in the scope and quality of social and economic statistics as delivered through national, regional and international household survey programmes. Three major objectives of ISWGHS are (a) fostering coordination; (b) promoting advancement and harmonization of survey methodologies; and (c) communicating the importance of household surveys. As a collaborative group, ISWGHS is a platform to support the exchange of knowledge and experience among international agencies, national statistical offices, academic experts, the private sector and other key players. Such exchange will improve the flow of knowledge and experience among countries and assist in the scaling up of innovative approaches in countries with lower statistical capacity.The webinar will provide an overview of: (a) the outputs produced by the ISWGHS and how they support countries in making their household survey systems more coordinated and innovative; (b) the platform provided to support countries in exchanging knowledge and experience; and (c) the future work program following the paper on "Positioning Household Surveys for the Next Decade" (Position Paper) produced by ISWGHS.The speaker would also welcome advice and guidance from IASS members on the future work program and collaboration opportunities.
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 03 Feb 2023 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat Icon-Institut
Description: The main objective of the courses is to enhance the theoretical and practical knowledge related to the treatment of unit non-response and item non-response. In particular, participants will gain knowledge on weighting techniques in order to deal with unit non-response and imputation techniques in order to deal with item non-response. For unit-nonresponse, participants will also learn about up to date monitoring of data collection and application of adaptive survey designs.
Target Audience: All NSIs staff dealing with data collection facing non-response, either unit non-response where entire units intended to be collected are missing or item non-response where some items of otherwise responding units are missing.
Description: Coordination of statistical activities is a broad and often discussed topic. Its importance is directly recognized in the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (UNFPOS) through principle 8 “Coordination among statistical agencies within countries is essential to achieve consistency and efficiency in the statistical system.” Recognizing this gap, the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS) established a task force to review and share national practices for the coordination of household survey systems. The task force has sought to address this through a review of the practices of five countries, namely Canada, Costa Rica, Ghana, Ireland, and Samoa, as well as one sub-regional statistical office – Statistics of Development Division for the Pacific Community (SPC). The webinar will foster a discussion on key lessons learnt and good practices in making household survey systems more coordinated, harmonized and integrated, based on the experiences of the entities that were part of the ISWGHS’ task force on survey coordination.
Source: ESCAP SIAP (Data extracted on: 07 Dec 2023 )
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Organizer(s): ESCAP SIAP UNICEF KOSTAT Korea
Description: The United Nations Statistical Institute for Asia and Pacific (UNSIAP)together with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) will organize a regional training on education data capacity building from 15 to 19 May 2023in DaejeonRepublic of Korea. The program will focus on understanding education indicators based on household survey dataas well as administrative sources with a focus on SDG4 and other relevant SDG targets related to education such as child labour. Most of the indicatorshoweverwill come from MICS 6 datawhich should be available for all participating countries. In addition to the trainingthe capacity building activity will also serve as an opportunity for participating countries to share their experiences in terms of data useincluding both Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) and household data.
Description: The main objective of the course is to enhance the understanding and capacities of ILO constituents and social partners in designing and implementing household surveys and in processing sample data in line with best methodological practices. The course will enhance participant's' knowledge of the different sampling and weighting techniques, highlighting their pros and cons. In addition, it will highlight the link between sampling techniques and survey design, with a particular focus on labour force surveys (LFS), the most common source of official labour statistics across the globe. More specifically, the aims of the course are to: - Enhance understanding on sample surveys and survey designs; - Provide insights into the principles and practices of sampling; - Enrich understanding of estimation theory, methods for probability sampling, and sampling frames; - Improve understanding of different weighting strategies and treatment of unit non-response; - Increase understanding of quality dimensions and calculation of sample size for complex multi-stage designs; - Provide practical case studies on the treatment of total non-response and on weighting, making use of different sets of benchmarks available for different population sub-groups and/or for different geographical domains.
Target Audience: Important note: This course requires a basic knowledge of statistics and probability. The target audience includes: - Statisticians and practitioners from national statistical offices who have a role in designing household surveys samples and weighting survey data; - Other Statisticians from national statistical offices; Ministries of labour and other institutions involved in the production of work, social and gender-related statistics; - Employment and development policy analysts from national statistical offices, research and academic institutions, international organizations and donor organizations.
Description: During this Joint ISWGHS and Global Network Webinar Attila Hancioglu from UNICEF talked about the Launch of the 7th round of MICS (Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys), with a focus on new initiatives and innovations. UNICEF’s MICS is the largest source of statistically sound and internationally comparable data on children and women worldwide. With over 350 surveys conducted in 118 countries, MICS is an integral part of plans and policies of many governments around the world and the primary data source on the well-being of children. The 7th round aims to broaden the scope towards assessing emerging issues on the situation of children. The new round of MICS is featuring a new questionnaire architecture, expanded content, and new initiatives and innovations. The joint webinar covered: Main features of the 7th round of MICS, including the new questionnaire architecture and enhanced content, and plans for inclusion of new indicators during 2023-24; Ongoing roll-out of MICS7; and New initiatives and innovations. This event was co-organized with the ISWGHS.
Description: On March 2nd, 2023, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) held a well-attended side event at UNICEF House to officially launch the 7th round of MICS. MICS has been an integral part of UNICEF's efforts to promote children's well-being worldwide for nearly three decades. The launch event featured several distinguished speakers who shared their experiences with MICS and discussed the program's contributions to global development efforts. Vidhya Ganesh, UNICEF's Director of the Division of Data, Analysis, Planning and Monitoring, opened the event with introductory remarks, followed by a Q&A session facilitated by Mark Hereward, UNICEF's Chief Data Officer. Invited speakers included Shahnaz Arefin, Secretary of Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) of the Planning Ministry in Bangladesh, Dr. Abdalla Allag, Chairman of the Bureau of Statistics for Libya, and Chief Statisticians from four UN agencies: Haishan Fu (World Bank), Rachel Snow (UNFPA), Stephen Mac Feely (WHO), and Tarek Abou Chabake (UNHCR). The event also marked the introduction of UNICEF's newly appointed Chief Statistician, Joao Pedro Azevedo. Attila Hancioglu (Global MICS Coordinator) presented an overview of MICS7, which features expanding content and several new initiatives, including MICS Plus, MICS Link, MICS Tabulator, MICS PRTI, and MICS GIS. MICS7 will run until the end of 2026 and constitutes the largest coverage of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators of any global household survey program. With close to 200 indicators, MICS7 is equipped to provide crucial data on children, adolescents, and their families, crucial for informing policy, planning, and programming for children worldwide. The program's new questionnaire architecture will consist of short base questionnaires for households, women, men, under-5s, and children aged 5-17, populated with universally applicable standard modules, the majority of which produce data on SDG indicators. Complementary topics can also be added based on survey scope, objectives, priorities, content constraints, funding availability, and other concerns. MICS7 will therefore no longer rely on a single set of standard questionnaires. This flexible questionnaire architecture will enable survey customization to meet the needs of different countries and regions more efficiently. MICS7 is rolling out with Regional MICS Survey Design workshops starting in late March with the first workshop in Belgrade, Serbia, where 14 countries participated from the European and Central Asian region. Additional regional survey design workshops will be held in Amman, Dakar, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, and Nairobi from May to September 2023. The MICS7 website will be updated progressively with MICS7 documents as they become available, with major updates expected by mid April. Overall, MICS7 represents an important step forward in global development efforts, with its expanded content, new initiatives, and flexible questionnaire architecture. UNICEF and its partners are committed to ensuring that MICS7 continues to play a leading role in informing policies and programs that improve the lives of children and families around the world, and in monitoring progress towards the SDGs.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Title in Arabic: مواضيع متقدمة في العينات وحساب الأوزان وتعديلها
Organizer(s): AITRS
Description: تعتبر الدورة التدريبية الحالية المتعلقة بمواضيع متقدمة في العينات وحساب الأوزان وتعديلها مواصلة لمجهودات المعهد في دعم قدرات الاجهزة الاحصائية العربية في مجال مهم في كل الانشطة الاحصائية، وهي الثالثة في سلسلة الدورات المنعقدة حول العينات والمواضيع الخاصة بها. وسيتم تناول هذه الدورة من خلال تقديم مواضيع متقدمة في علم العينات، وذلك لبناء قدرات المتدربين بشكل افضل وزيادة خبرتهم في تطبيقات تعتبر ضرورية في مجال تصميم العينات المتكررة وحساب الاوزان. وقد اصبحت هذه التطبيقات منتشرة اقليميا ودولياً في الفترة الاخيرة نتيجة زيادة كفاءة البرمجيات الحديثة، والتطور السريع في المجال الاحصائي.
Description: A diverse panel of experts gathered to discuss how data integration and interoperability can help countries and international agencies tackle issues related to their mandate. Topics discussed included integrating Twitter and Demographic Health Survey data to understand online violence against women in India, integrating data sources to disaggregate SDG indicators, a pilot study in Sri Lanka to apply common statistical standards across survey types, combining administrative and survey data to estimate outof-school rates, a pilot project to link MICS to EMIS data in Eswatini and Fiji, supporting satellite-based crop type mapping and crop yield estimation through surveys, and the experience of Bangladesh in estimating poverty using Small Area Estimation and nonconventional data. The 54th UNSC side event marked the first in a series of webinars about household survey program priorities for the next decade. The series is based on the ISWGHS Position Paper published last year, which contains eight technical priorities. Organized by the ISWGHS with the support of its co-chairs from the World Bank and UN Women, the event was attended by more than 150 people. For more information, please visit our website.
Description: This activity focuses on presenting the R library “Calidad”, a set of methodological tools to assess the quality of an estimate towards objective criteria of the estimate’s reliability in complex household surveys.
Description: The authors of the book 'Mixed-Mode Official Surveys - Design and analysis will present their analysis on this topic through both theoretical discussions and practical examples based on the Netherlands National Statistical Office (NSO), addressing the main concepts, the challenges, and future developments. Mr. Ferreira, from INE Uruguay, will share the NSO experience on implementing mixed-mode official surveys. Gathering different perspectives, speakers will highlight benefits, drawbacks, and trade-offs in different scenarios. The experience of countries implementing mixed-mode official surveys could benefit other countries willing to experiment with mixed-mode surveys. Mr. Solly Molayi, from Statistics South Africa, will be the main discussant of the session.
Description: The United Nations Statistics Division and the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) are jointly organizing an international seminar on Measuring Shared Prosperity and Inclusion: Challenges and Innovative Approaches, 2-4 November 2022. The meeting aims to provide a platform for exchange of experiences in bringing innovations into the measurement of poverty and prosperity.
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 31 Jan 2022 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat Icon-Institut
Description: To learn state of the art techniques in survey sampling.
Target Audience: NSI statisticians dealing with surveys faced with the challenge to change data collection methods such as mixed mode strategies and adaptive survey designs. Additionally they face the use of administrative data and big data in the survey design and weighting stage.
Organizer(s): Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian Network on Survey Statistics
Description: The BNU Workshop on Survey Statistics 2022 will be organized in August 23-26, 2022, in Tartu, Estonia. The workshop will be of a hybrid type, connecting in-person participation in Tartu and online participation (via Zoom) for those registered participants who cannot attend in person. The scientific program covers both innovations in established methods on survey and official statistics and new and emerging approaches in the area. The first keynote speaker, Jean-François Beaumont, will give an online talk on inference from non-probability samples through data integration. María del Mar Rueda discusses further challenges in inference with non-probability surveys and delivers a PC lab on estimating with non-probability surveys using R. Recent advances in population statistics will be discussed by Li-Chun Zhang. In addition to the keynote talks, a number of invited and contributed papers will be presented. Further, Carl-Erik Särndal, the author of two milestone publications of 1992, the Springer book "Model-Assisted Survey Sampling" (with Bengt Swensson and Jan Wretman) and the JASA article "Calibration Estimators in Survey Sampling" (with Jean-Claude Deville), will attend the workshop. As 2022 is the jubilee year for both publications, Carl-Erik Särndal has promised to give a keynote talk on the occasion. His title is "Progress in survey science, yesterday, today, tomorrow". A round table discussion is arranged after his talk. The Workshop is organized by the Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian (BNU) Network on Survey Statistics in cooperation with partner universities and several national statistical institutes and associations. The University of Tartu, Statistics Estonia and the University of Helsinki have primary responsibility. Today, the BNU network involves partners from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Ukraine. Baltic-Nordic co-operation on survey statistics started in 1992 by the initiative of Prof. Gunnar Kulldorff and was developed as the Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian (BNU) Network on Survey Statistics from 1996 on. The BNU network has organized annual events since 1997. More information about the Baltic-Nordic-Ukrainian Network on Survey Statistics are available at the BNU website.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Description: Substitution of a nonresponding unit with one not originally selected in the sample is a commonly used method for dealing with unit nonresponse. Although frequently used in practice, substitution is largely neglected in the survey sampling literature. To date, few studies have attempted to develop a formal framework for describing and evaluating substitution methods, and little research has been done to improve estimates obtained through the use of substitution as a nonresponse adjustment procedure. In this presentation, I will show results from simulation and empirical studies conducted to enhance our understanding of substitution methods and present new procedures to improve them.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Description: Within the framework of its Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme, SESRIC will organise an Online Training Course on ‘Survey Methods and Sampling’ for the benefit of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of OIC countries on 23 – 26 May 2022. Mr. Cenker Burak Metin, Head of Survey and Sampling Design Group at the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) will conduct the course and cover the following topics: Definition of a statistical survey and basic concepts Defining the survey objectives, variables and concepts Survey planning and steps of a survey Data collection methods PAPI, CATI, CAPI and other methods Introduction to Sampling Design Implementation of Sampling Techniques Estimation theory for sample surveys The course will be conducted through a video conferencing platform by following synchronous learning and instruction approaches designed in line with the virtual training solutions undertaken by SESRIC in order to better serve the Centre’s training activities and keep participants motivated and engaged during this time of global crisis due to COVID-19. For more information on SESRIC Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme, please visit: http://www.oicstatcom.org/statcab.php
Title in Arabic: تصميم العينات ومنهجيات المسوح في الاحصاءات الرسمية
Organizer(s): AITRS
Description: مواصلة للدورة التدريبية التي نظمها المعهد خلال الفترة 15 فبراير / شباط - 13 نيسان / ابريل 2021 حول مجال العينات بواقع 45 ساعة واعتبارا لأهمية هذا المجال لما له دور أساسي في تخطيط وبرمجة واعداد المسوح الإحصائية والمشاكل التي تواجه عملية الاستقصاء وجمع البيانات الإحصائية وأثر العينة على نتائج تلك المسوح والية اختيار المناسب منها، سينظم المعهد دورة تدريبية متقدمة حول تصميم العينات ومنهجيات المسوح في الاحصاءات الرسمية بالاضافة الى استعراض المستجدات التي طرأت في علم العينات واستخدام التقنيات الجديدة والبرمجيات الحديثة. ,تهدف هذه الدورة الى: * ترسيخ المفاهيم الضرورية لتصميم عينات المسوح الإحصائية * اعداد وتجهيز اطر المعاينة وسحب العينات منها * حساب الاوزان وتعديلها ومعايرتها * حساب التباين والدقة في التقديرات الناتجة من المسوح بالعينة * استخدام البرامج الحديثة في سحب العينات وحساب التباين * ضبط ومراقبة الجودة في كل مراحل العمل
Description: During this Global Network and ISWGHS joint webinar, we had Laura Wilson from UK Government Data Quality Hub and Emma Dickinson from Social Survey Transformation (SST) at Office for National Statistics (ONS) in UK. They talked about harnessing Respondent Centered Surveys. Throughout the survey design industry, we are experiencing a decline in response rates alongside the demand for push-to-web mixed-mode completion. The data collection world is changing and to respond to these challenges, it is necessary to combine established and innovative survey design methodologies. We must move away from the traditional approaches that hinder us from achieving our goals, such as designing surveys at desk or in the boardroom. Instead, we need to start putting the respondent first and letting them drive survey design. This is Respondent Centered Design and it is achieved by heavily involving respondents in research to establish their survey participation needs and subsequently building to meet them. Only then can we develop a survey with low burden and high-quality data. This talk explained why this shift in our design focus and practices is critical to the creation of successful surveys. It introduces and explains an innovative methodological approach called ‘Respondent Centered Design’ which is showcased in the speakers new book, ‘Respondent Centered Surveys; Stop, Listen and then Design’. The talk demonstrates its application to survey development through use of frameworks and case studies from the transformation of the UK’s Labour Force Survey from the Office for National Statistics.
Description: National experiences on the continuity of the production of official statistics based on household surveys during the pandemic and its impact on data quality.
Source: IOM GMDAC (Data extracted on: 31 May 2022 )
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Organizer(s): IOM EU
Description: The workshop "Household surveys and international migration data: Using, improving and creating efficient migration data collection tools" will be conducted in a hybrid manner and will cater for in-person and virtual participation. Participants will be invited from the government departments in the Southern Africa Member States. The invitation will be shared with a broader statistical audience who may want to participate virtually and benefit from the discussions.
Description: Household surveys play a critical role in meeting national data needs. A recent mapping exercise found that approximately one-third of all Sustainable Development Goal global indicators (80 out of 232 indicators), covering 13 different goals, can be sourced from household surveys. Despite their fundamental role in national statistical systems over the past decades, household surveys are facing funding challenges and skepticism on their continued utility within the changing data landscape. Within this context, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges for household surveys, given limitations on face-to-face survey operations as a result of social distancing and other restrictions in many countries. A survey conducted by the UN Statistical Division and the World Bank in May 2020 found that 96 percent of national statistical offices either partially or fully stopped face-to-face data collection at some point during the pandemic. The increased need for timely, high-quality data on the impacts of the pandemic heightened demands for more efficient household survey systems relative to the status quo. In response to these challenges, national statistical offices have acted quickly to respond to new data needs introduced by the pandemic, while maintaining the continuity of existing data collection programmes. To do so, countries have adopted innovative approaches and/or turned to alternative data sources , with most countries implementing one or more rounds of phone or web surveys measuring the impact of COVID-19 in the past year. Looking ahead, the global data community faces several key questions on the future of household surveys. How will COVID-19 reshape national household survey programs in the future? How can we establish sustainable household survey programs that are resilient and versatile to future shocks like COVID-19? Will COVID-19 be a catalyst for innovation in the field of household surveys? What are the priority actions for countries and for the international community in the next decade for household surveys? A position paper is being prepared by the Inter-Secretariat Working Group of Household Surveys (ISWGHS) that aims to identify priority areas and the enabling environment, both at the national and international level, for household surveys to better perform their foundational roles, meet new data demands and increase their development policy and research impact in the remaining decade for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The paper articulates these priorities as a blueprint for action for the ISWGHS, given its mandate of supporting countries as they work towards achieving the SDGs. The presentation will cover the recent work of ISWGHS on improving national capacity in the area of household surveys and key aspects covered by the position paper. ISWGHS looks forward to receiving input from and collaborating with members of IASS.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Description: Adaptive survey designs aim to get a better balanced response by putting different effort in different groups of the population. They are effective in improving survey results and reducing survey costs. Over the last decade, a lot of methodological research has been done on this topic. In this webinar, an overview of research on adaptive survey design will be presented. After that, the implementation of adaptive survey design is demonstrated at the hand of the Dutch Health survey. In this survey a sequential mixed mode strategy CAWI followed by CAPI is applied. The feature to adapt is the CAPI follow-up. The design is developed in such a way that through stratified selection of internet nonrespondents for face to face follow-up, nonresponse bias can potentially be reduced. Mode-specific measurement errors which likely exist in many surveys, especially in the Health survey, have not received much attention in adaptive survey design. In order to separate and quantify mode-specific measurement effects and selection effects, an experiment with re-interviews is planned for the Health survey. The sampling and questionnaire design including analysis possibilities are discussed in the webinar.
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Original webpage was deleted, archived version from the Internet Archive (not a UN service): Link
Source: Eurostat (Data extracted on: 03 May 2021 )
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Organizer(s): Eurostat Icon-Institut
Description: To learn state of the art techniques in survey sampling.
Target Audience: NSI statisticians dealing with surveys faced with the challenge to change data collection methods such as mixed mode strategies and adaptive survey designs. Additionally they face the use of administrative data and big data in the survey design and weighting stage. ESTP Trainings are open to non-ESS members if capacity allows after ESS needs are fulfilled.
Source: UN Women (Data extracted on: 01 Mar 2021 )
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Organizer(s): UN Women
Description: The Counted and Visible Toolkit provides a compilation of tools and mechanisms used by several countries to produce evidence to inform gender-responsive policies and catalyze actions to leave no one behind. This Toolkit was developed by UN Women, in collaboration with the Intersecretariat Working Group on Household Surveys. The webinar will showcase the experiences of countries featured in the toolkit with a view to consult with intended users on its relevance, content, and practicality.
Description: Building and updating an inventory of addresses is a challenge that blends handling high volumes of data, with homogenizing information from different institutions, and accessing information from non-traditional sources. Having a good inventory of addresses makes it easier to update master sample frames for household surveys, and to plan field work for data collection in general. It also opens the door to innovations such as web based responses.
Target Audience: National statistical offices, government officials that deal with official statistics production and/or dissemination, policy makers, employees from International Organizations that deal with statistical capacity building, researchers
Source: UN Women (Data extracted on: 18 Nov 2020 )
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Organizer(s): UN Women World Bank
Description: The webinar aims to provide a venue for various partners – government and non-State actors – of UN Women and the World Bank to share learning experiences on and use cases of their COVID-19 data collection initiatives with focus on gender dimensions. It will feature learning from World Bank’s high-frequency phone surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean, and UN Women’s rapid gender assessments in Afghanistan, where face-to-face interviews have to be undertaken in partnership with the International Rescue Committee to reach the furthest behind. Bridging the gap between data production and use, the Webinar will also showcase use cases of these surveys in Maldives, Bangladesh, and Jordan.
Description: While the pandemic has resulted in considerable data collection challenges, surveys can also play a crucial role in understanding the social, economic, and health impacts of COVID-19. This was the first Building Strong Data Ecosystems for SDGs webinar – Household Surveys given by Ms. Haoyi Chen, the coordinator of the Inter-Secretariat Working Group of Household Surveys (ISWGHS). The webinar took place on Wednesday, October 28th, at 8:00 am NY time. Watch this webinar and learn: • The role of household surveys in supporting the SDG monitoring; • How household surveys adapt and contribute to policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic; • Are we moving to a post-COVID “new normal” for household surveys? We would also like to learn from you: • What areas of household surveys would you like to learn more about? • What support would you need from the Intersecretariat Working Group on Household Surveys?
Description: The restrictions imposed by many countries in the world to combat the COVID-19 have presented huge challenges to data collection operations, particularly to household-based surveys when there is a massive increase in demand for information, including socio-economic impact of COVID-19. The ILO, UNESCAP, and UNICEF are collaborating to organize this Stats Café session aiming to introduce existing guidelines to maintain data collection procedures, shed light on some practical aspects of mixing data collection modes and provide a platform for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to exchange their expertise and learn from each other. The Stats Café session covered: Surveys under lockdown: mixed mode designs and quality issues; Case of labour force surveys: current ILO guidance; MICS-PLUS under Pandemic situation; Q&A, discussions and way forward. Additional resources: UK example: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/262835/discover_modeeffectsfactsheet.pdf EU report on mixed mode data collection: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cros/system/files/final_report_CP_rev1.pdf ILO guidance on Remote work, telework, work at home and home-based work can be accessed through one of the following links: https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/covid-19/ https://ilostat.ilo.org/topics/covid-19/#guidance https://ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---stat/documents/publ... Moderator Gemma Van Halderen is the Director of Statistics Division in ESCAP. Her work is to improve the use of statistics for evidence-based decision making and to develop and disseminate quality statistics for inclusive, sustainable and resilient societies in the ESCAP region. Gemma has extensive experience with the global statistical system through the UN Statistical Commission and UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management. Panelists Kieran Walsh joined ILO Department of Statistics in October 2014, working in the statistical standards and methods unit with a particular focus on testing of methods and questionnaires to enable implementation of the latest statistical standards on work, employment and labour underutilization. During his time in the ILO, in addition to the Labour Force Survey related work, Kieran has filled the role of Chairperson of the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWG-HS) and various other roles. Prior to joining the ILO, Kieran worked for 13 years in the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland where he served as Director of Business Statistics in 2013 and 2014. Jayachandran Vasudevan (Jay) is working at the UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, Bangkok as ‘Regional Statistics and Monitoring Specialist and MICS coordinator’. Jay has experience of working with large international household survey programs such as MICS and Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) especially in Asia and Africa. Arman Bidarbakht Nia is the head of Statistical Data Management Unit at UNESCAP-Statistics Division. Arman’s areas of research and professional interest include measures for human development, survey methodology, and micro-econometrics. Prior to joining UN, Arman worked as survey statistician at Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI). --------------------- >> See others Asia-Pacific Stats Café series
Description: While the pandemic has resulted in considerable data collection challenges, surveys can also play a crucial role in understanding the social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19. As part of the UNSD-DFID project, which is working with 20 countries in Africa and Asia to support their SDG monitoring and COVID-19 data response, the UN Statistics Division hosted a webinar covering topics including the role of surveys during the pandemic, telephone surveys and sampling, and questionnaire design and data collection. It also includes a presentation by Dr. Ola Awad, Director General of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), highlighting how they have been responding to COVID-19, including using surveys to measure the impacts of the pandemic on people's lives. Here you can find the video, a copy of the presentations, and a Q and A based on the questions raised during the webinar.
Description: Household surveys play an important role in meeting national data needs, for example, in measuring poverty, employment, skills and learning inclusive education, food security, access to health services and public services, discrimination and violence, inter alia. Household surveys are also critical for monitoring inequalities by gender, class, location disability and other markers of disadvantage, which is critical for monitoring progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, household surveys are an invaluable source of data for behavioural and attitudinal measures which cannot be collected - for example - through administrative data systems. A mapping exercise recently conducted shows that around one-third of all SDG indicators (80 out of 232 indicators), covering 13 different goals, can be sourced from household surveys.1 Despite their crucial role in national statistical systems over the past decades, household surveys are now facing many funding challenges and scepticism about their usefulness and adaptability to this era of a changing data landscape. Household surveys are increasingly portrayed as slow and costly. With rising income and urbanization, response rates in surveys (especially in high-income countries) have been declining, with more and more individuals becoming reluctant to participate in surveys. Survey data are often underutilized, which raises further questions on the usefulness and the value of household surveys. With national statistical offices overstretched and underfunded to meet the growing demand for data, household surveys are too-often framed as obsolete when compared and contrasted with other data sources such as "Big Data" and administrative data. Some have even speculated that in a not-too-distant future, Big Data may eliminate the need for surveys altogether. Are household surveys still relevant in the changing data landscape? And if so, are there new roles for that household surveys can play in this new data landscape in addition to the value they currently hold? How do we unleash the full potential of household surveys to add value to other data sources? What are the real opportunities and limitations of alternative data sources vis a vis household surveys? How do we improve the effectiveness of household surveys and their contribution to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? Organised by the United Nations Statistics Division, in collaboration with the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys, the seminar provides a platform for national statistical offices, international organisations and the research community to debate and discuss strategies to realise the full potential of household surveys in this new environment. The seminar will help identify the way forward for further methodological development in household surveys, for scaling up innovative approaches in countries and for identifying capacity building needs. The seminar will also explore and suggest practical ways to streamline and scale up those innovative approaches and do so equitably, with low income countries benefiting in equal manner.
Description: Workshop expected results: * Strengthened skills of UNICEF officers, government counterparts and survey coordinators for planning, organization, management and coordination of MICS; * Improved understanding of the indicators and the recommended survey methodology for collecting data on the situation of children and women through MICS; * Draft survey plans produced for Nigeria and Benin, including sampling plans and questionnaires.
