Demographic and Social Statistics

The Second United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses is organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in New York from 13 to 15 December 2023. The main objective of the Expert Group meeting is to review the draft version of the Principles and Recommendations for the 2030 round. The Expert Group, which was established for the purpose of overseeing the revision of the Principles and Recommendations, held its first meeting virtually from 23 to 25 May 2023. The Expert Group set up seven Task Teams — corresponding to seven themes identified by the Expert Group as critical for the revision — to carry out the work of revising components of the publication. The meeting will review the draft version of the Principles and Recommendations with a view to bringing it in line with good practices and contemporary approaches to conducting population and housing censuses. A multitude of changes have been documented in the current census round pertaining to the use of technologies, adoption of multi-modal data collection, and utilization of administrative data sources. Many countries had to innovate to overcome the challenges of conducting censuses during the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a reference publication, the revised Principles and Recommendations will reflect the innovations made and the experiences collected thus far and provide comprehensive guidance to national statistical authorities for planning, organizing, conducting, and utilizing 2030 round population and housing censuses. It is expected that the next revision of the Principles and Recommendations will be submitted for endorsement by the Statistical Commission at its 56^th session in 2025.

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The Expert Group Meeting on the Synergies between Census, CRVS Systems and Administrative Records: Implications for the 4^th revision to the UN Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses is co-organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The meeting is to be held in New York from 11 to 12 December 2023. The expert group meeting will bring together experts from National Statistics Offices, CRVS Systems, and international organizations to review insights, experiences and lessons from recent census rounds and ongoing efforts to strengthen CRVS systems. The objective of the expert group meeting is to synthesize lessons and insights from recent census and CRVS efforts to guide the updating of the UN Principles and Recommendations on Population and Housing Censuses (Revision 4) in the following areas: i) the assessment of the completeness and quality of vital event registration data and identity management system data using census data; ii) the leveraging of administrative records from CRVS systems and related administrative registers for the production of census operations and census data; and, iii) the use of censuses to measure human mobility including international migration, internal displacement and refugee stocks and flows.

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The third Expert Group Meeting aims to continue monitoring the challenges in conducting population and housing censuses during the pandemic. In addition, on day two, the meeting will cover data quality issues that may have arisen due to conducting the census during a pandemic and potential methods to address data quality concerns. Day three of the meeting will provide an opportunity to take a broader approach and discuss lessons learned from conducting censuses during times of crisis and provide recommendations for improving the resilience of future censuses conducted. It is likely that future census operations will have to contend increasing uncertainty due to natural disasters, health emergencies, political instability, or other unforeseen disruptive events. None of these events can be predicted in advance, but contingency planning for the unexpected will be a vital component of delivering a successful census going forward into the 2030 round.

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This EGM is designed to review the content and the quality of the United Nations Demographic Yearbook - one of the crucial collections of population statistics for over seventy years.

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There is a growing interest to use administrative registers in conducting population and housing censuses. In the recent census round, a number of countries has developed alternative methods to conduct the census, relying fully on administrative registers or combining administrative data with a limited collection of data from a field enumeration or with a full field enumeration. The decision to move to an alternative approach with the use of registers is motivated with many advantages including completeness of coverage, timeliness and less cost. However, this transition has to be planned and managed carefully for successful use of registers for the production of census statistics. The Expert Group meeting will be organised to discuss basic requirements for the use of administrative registers including legal base, establishing comprehensive and reliable population register as a base for the census, considerations for address registers, stakeholder and public approval and other issues related to data confidentiality and data quality. The meeting will bring together census experts from National Statistical Offices, international and regional organisations and individual experts to explore good practices, challenges and lessons learned. The meeting will give an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences for establishing population registers for the use of population and housing censuses and provide input for developing and/or revising international standards and recommendations.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Inter-Agency and Expert Group Meeting on Gender Statistics. This closed meeting will take place in New York, from 7 to 8 November 2019.

Bringing together gender statisticians and experts from the international, regional and national institutions that are IAEG-GS members, the 13th IAEG-GS Meeting has the following objectives:

(a) take stock and provide feedback, from a gender perspective, on the methodological work being undertaken by UNSD and the Expert Group on Innovative and Effective Ways to Collect Time-Use Statistics, in line with international standards;
(b) discuss and review the on-going work of the IAEG-GS Advisory Group on Strengthening Administrative Systems to Close Gender Data Gaps;
(c) review on-going national, regional and global initiatives to improve evidence for gender-relevant policies, including the development and implementation of international methods and standards;
(d) discuss progress towards gender equality at the national, regional and global levels, in particular in the context of Beijing+25 and for the preparation of The World’s Women 2020; and
(e) cover other business, including the IAEG-GS members’ work in the field of gender statistics and the preparation of the 8th Global Forum on Gender Statistics in 2020.

#genderstat

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing the third meeting of the Expert Group on Innovative and Effective ways to collect Time-Use Statistics (TUS), in line with ICATUS 2016 and other international standards, to be held in New York on 4 – 6 November 2019. The meeting will be convened to continue the process of developing methodological guidelines on how to operationalize ICATUS 2016 and produce time-use statistics using the latest technologies, as requested by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its forty-eighth session in 2017 in its decision 48/109.

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects a unique global consensus and commitment to address the world’s most acute and pressing challenges to leave no one behind. Four years after the SDGs were agreed, heads of state and government will return to the United Nations under the auspices of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for multilateral discussion of international issues and for the first time host the SDG summit to allow a detailed assessment of the progress towards achievement of the global goals

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United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on Improving Migration Data in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The meeting will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, from 1-3 July 2019.

The main objectives of the Expert Group Meeting are to: (a) review the draft Technical Report on Measuring Migration-relevant SDG Indicators; (b) discuss the revision of the 1998 United Nations Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, in particular the technical material developed by the Group’s task forces and agree on the outline and next steps/timeline for the revision; and (c) discuss a roadmap on improving national capacities on statistics on international migration, leading to a draft global programme on migration statistics.

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United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in cooperation with the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems, housed at the International Development Research Centre of Canada, is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on the Handbook on Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems: Communication for Development. The meeting will take place in New York, from 29 to 31 May 2019 and will be conducted in English.

The main objective of the meeting is to review the draft of the revised Handbook; to provide guidance on its content and structure with a view to ensuring that it provides countries with a reference document on the communication aspects of Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing the second meeting of the Expert Group on Innovative and Effective ways to collect Time-Use Statistics (TUS), in line with ICATUS 2016 and other international standards, to be held in New York on 20-22 May 2019. The meeting will be convened to continue the process of developing methodological guidelines on how to operationalize ICATUS 2016 and produce time-use statistics using the latest technologies, as requested by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its forty-eighth session in 2017 in its decision 48/109.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on Statistical Methodology for Delineating Cities and Rural Areas. The meeting will take place in New York, from 28 to 30 January 2019 and will be conducted in English.

In the context of the fact that, at the level of international official statistics and international statistical standards, there is a lack of harmonized and universally implemented definition of urban and rural areas in general, and the definitions of metropolitan, urban, semi-urban, rural and uninhabited areas in particular, several innovative approaches have been developed in recent years in an attempt to develop statistical methodology that could be generally used across world regions and that is based on identical parameters. The European Commission, in co-operation with several international organizations has developed such a methodology for a harmonized delineation of cities and rural areas. The purpose of the Expert Group Meeting is to discuss, in detail, the following points: (1) Assessing the technical comprehensiveness of the methodology as developed by European Commission and partners; (2) Assessing the applicability of the parameters for the delineation of urban and rural areas in terms of levels of density; (3) Assessing the employment of the methodology in national circumstances through the presentation and elaboration of national practices and examples; (4) Elaborating on the suitability of submitting the proposed methodology to the United Nations Statistical Commission for discussion and possible recommendation for the purpose of achieving regional and international comparison and harmonization of urban and rural areas and their statistics.

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The main objective of the Expert Group meeting is to review the revised Handbook on Population and Housing Census Editing and to provide further guidance on its content and structure with a view to ensuring that it provides countries with a reference document on contemporary census data editing methods and information on various approaches to census data editing. Specifically, the meeting aims to: (i) review the revised Handbook to ensure that it provides relevant guidance on editing procedures and processes for traditional census editing (editing after data collection) as well as for real-time editing (editing during data collection where tablet computers and the Internet are used) based on good country practices; (ii) align the revised Handbook with contemporary census practices, including the use of electronic data collection technologies; (iii) align the revised Handbook with the standards and methods contained in the recently revised Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses and Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in cooperation with Vital Strategies is organizing an Expert Group Meeting to finalize the Guidelines for Legal Framework of Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems. The Expert Group Meeting will take place in New York, United States, from 17 to 19 December 2018 and will be conducted in English.

The purpose of the Expert Group Meeting is to carefully and meticulously review the draft Guidelines on Legal Framework for Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems, primarily from the perspective of the implementation at national level. The meeting will go through the guidelines paragraph by paragraph, after first summoning general comments and suggestions.

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The United Nations Statistical Commission during its 48th session, 7-10 March 2017, in its decision 48/109 endorsed the International Classification of Activities for Time -Use Statistics (ICATUS 2016) for use as an international statistical classification and supported the proposal to develop methodological guidelines on how to operationalize ICATUS 2016 and produce time-use statistics using the latest technologies. It also urged countries to give high priority to time-use statistics, given their increased demand and their critical role in the review and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals. It finally recognized the need to provide technical assistance to countries, particularly in developing regions.
Reliable time use statistics have been critical for (a) the measurement and analysis of quality of life or general well-being; (b) a more comprehensive measurement of all forms of work, including unpaid work and non-market production and the development of household production accounts; and for (c) producing data to inform and monitor gender policies. Time-use statistics can further supplement information to other statistical areas, such as: education (learning patterns), health (physical activity patterns, feeding patters, sleep patterns, etc.), culture (involvement), environment (access to water, sanitation and clean energy), social behaviors, involvement in civic activities, use of ICT, etc.
It is in this context that the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) organized an Expert Group Meeting on Innovative and Effective ways to collect Time-Use Statistics (TUS), in line with ICATUS 2016 and other international standards and in support of SDGs monitoring on 20-22 June 2018 in New York (under the component on Gender Statistics and Indicators – Component 4 – of the DA10 Statistics and Data Project supporting the “EA5 Enhanced capacity of target countries to adopt and apply statistical methods to assess gender gaps in selected key areas of women’s empowerment, classified as Tier II indicators in the SDG framework” – Activity A.5.1), to take stock of countries’ best practices in producing time use data, and to discuss the content and update of the UN Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on the Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Disability Statistics in New York on 12-14 July 2017. The main objective of the Expert Group Meeting is to initiate the revision of the UN Guidelines and Principles for the Development of Disability Statistics (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publications/catalogue?selectID=269)- The revision with take into account the context of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and provide guidance to countries on how to produce statistics on disability so as to better meet demands for good quality data for measuring and monitoring progress towards inclusion of persons with disabilities in development programmes.

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The United Nations Statistics Division, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Division and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), will organise an expert group meeting on "Improving Migration Data in the Context of the 2030 Agenda". The meeting will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 20 to 22 June 2017. The objectives of the meeting are to: (a) discuss how "migratory status" can be defined in the context of SDG data disaggregation; (b) identify the SDG indicators that are directly related to international migration and indictors that should be further disaggregated by migratory status; and (c) assess data requirements for these indicators, identify gaps in exiting methodologies and propose strategies to overcome these gaps, including the use of innovative methodologies and non-traditional data sources. The outcome of the meeting will provide inputs to a technical report to guide the production and use of data for the migration-relevant SDG indicators by countries. The meeting will also formulate action-oriented recommendations on migration data collection and compilation for the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

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Under the EDGE project, the United Nations Statistics Division organised a Technical Meeting on the draft UN Methodological Guidelines on the Production of Statistics on Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective. Held in New York from 5-6 May, 2017, the technical meeting provided an overview of the key components of the guidelines and solicited input on the remaining technical issues requiring resolution.

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At a side event to the 48th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the EDGE project presented the key recommendations of the draft UN Methodological Guidelines on the Production of Statistics on Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective and solicited feedback from stakeholders.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is conducting an Expert Group Meeting on Management and Evaluation of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems. The main objective is to review the draft of the revised Handbook on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems: Management, Operation and Maintenance; to provide further guidance on its content and structure with a view to ensuring that it provides countries with a reference document on the management aspects of civil registration and vital statistics, including evaluation of completeness. The revised Handbook is expected to be submitted to the United Nations Statistical Commission for adoption.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on the revision of the International Classification of Activities for Time Use Statistics (ICATUS), to be held at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, on 28-30 June 2016. ICATUS is a classification of all the activities a person may spend time on during the 24 hours of a day. Its purpose is to serve as a standard framework for time-use statistics based on activities grouped in a meaningful way and relevant to both developing and developed countries. ICATUS was first published as a “trial” classification in 2005 and built on national and regional classifications existing at the time. The revision of the classification started in 2012 with the organization of an Expert Group Meeting by UNSD. Since then, new standards, including the framework for work statistics as adopted at the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2013, have been incorporated into a revised version of the classification. UNSD has undertaken an electronic consultation since February 2016 to receive comments from national and international experts on the current version of the classification that will be discussed and finalized at the Expert Group Meeting.

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The United Nations Statistics Division is conducting the Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of the Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses, to be held in New York, from 14-17 December 2015.

The main objective of the meeting is to review the draft of the revised Handbook on the Management of Population and Housing Censuses and to provide further guidance on its content and structure with a view to ensuring that it provides countries with a reference document on the management aspects of carrying out population and housing censuses in the 2020 round of population and housing censuses, as mandated by the ECOSOC resolution on the same topic. The revised Handbook is expected to be submitted to the United Nations Statistical Commission for adoption.

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The United Nations Statistics Division is conducting the Second Expert Group Meeting on the Revision of Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses in New York, 29 April - 2 May 2014.

The first meeting took place in November 2013 and resulted in establishing three working groups, each focussing on particular part of the principles and recommendations. The second meeting of the expert group will review the consolidated input and contributions and discuss both general and specific issues and topics, leading to the draft text of revised principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses.

This expert group comprises of over fifty experts from national statistical offices and international and regional organizations.

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The overall objective of the UN EDGE Follow-up Meeting on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective is to reach a tentative agreement on the broad recommendations on the design of the methodological survey experiments on measuring individual-level asset ownership from multi-purpose household surveys, including the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), with financial and technical contributions from theEvidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) project.1 The goal will be to develop by the end of the day a clear agenda for this work program and next steps.

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The United Nations Statistics Division is organising the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Revising the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses. It will be held fro 29 October - 1 November 2013 in New York. The main purpose of the meeting is to lay down the framework for the revised set of international principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses in the 2020 round censuses, that will take place from 2015 to 2024, The experts will take stock of the experiences in conducting population and housing censuses in the 2010 round and adopt an outline for the revision, as well as distributing specific tasks related to the preparation of the content of the recommendations among themselves. The revised Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses: the 2020 Round will be the major international statistical standard guiding the work on population and housing censuses in 2020 round.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing the 7th meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) in New York from 12 to 13 September 2013. The meeting will bring together representatives from national statistical offices, international agencies and Regional Commissions to review global work on gender statistics. The objectives of the meeting are to review the work of the Advisory Group on Emerging Issues, discuss the Minimum Set of Gender Indicators and update the members on capacity building efforts in gender statistics through a continued dialogue on the coordination of gender statistics activities.

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This meeting, organised by the United Nations Statistics Division and UN Women and attended by country representatives, agencies, and commissions, marked the beginning of the EDGE project’s methodological work on asset ownership.

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The 22nd and 23rd Meetings of Inter-agency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators (IAEG-MDGs) will be organized back to back on 20 and 21 February 2013 in New York. During the meetings, the outcomes of the debates on MDGs at the 67th session of the General Assembly as well as those of the Rio+20, will be reviewed. The participants will also discuss how to prepare the 2013 global MDG report and the work towards the final evaluation of MDGs in 2015, The meeting will be preceded by a half day meeting by the Task Team on Lessons learnt from MDG monitoring on 19 February 2013.

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The Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 31 July to 9 August 2012. In conjunction with the 10th UNCSGN, the 27th Session of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) will be held on 30 July and on 10 August 2012, one day prior and one day after the Tenth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. The UNCSGN is held every five years, and UNGEGN meets between the Conferences to follow up the implementation of resolutions adopted by the Conferences and to ensure continuity of activities between Conferences.

The primary objective of the Conference is to encourage national and international geographical names standardization, to promote the international dissemination of nationally standardized geographical names information, and to adopt single Romanization systems for the conversion of each non-Roman writing system to the Roman alphabet.

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Following a request by the Statistical Commission at its 28th session in 1995, UNSD convened a first expert group meeting in 1997 to prepare a draft classification of activities for time-use statistics. Then, based on the experience of countries that used or adapted this classification as well as on recommendations from a second expert group meeting organized in 2000, a revised and more elaborated version was issued and published in Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work (United Nations, 2005) as the UN Trial International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS).

After a lapse of years while several countries adapted ICATUS for application in their data collection, tabulation and analysis, UNSD is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on the revision and finalization of ICATUS. The meeting will bring together around 20 national and international experts to discuss and agree on several topics including: (1) the updates of the current categories (2) the consistency of ICATUS with the new international standards classification; (3) the treatment of more complex aspects (categories such as “looking for work” or “waiting”); (4) the mapping (correspondence tables) between ICATUS and other existing classifications. The final agreed classification will be presented to the UN Statistical Commission for endorsement in 2013, after been reviewed by the Expert Group on International Economic and Social Classifications.

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The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) is organizing a meeting of the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) in New York from 4-6 October 2011. The main objectives of the meeting are to continue the dialogue on the coordination of gender statistics activities, in light of the conclusions and recommendations made by the 42nd session of the UN Statistical Commission, and present the on-going activities of the advisory groups. The resulting recommendations and decisions coming out of the meeting will form the work plan for the IAEG-GS.

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The meeting will review the Principles and Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Rev. 2, which was published in 2001 by the United Nations (UN publication, Sales No. E.01.XVII.10). The essential standard the above mentioned Principles and Recommendations promulgates - generating accurate, reliable and regular vital statistics from civil registration system - remains unchanged and valid. However, over the past 10 years several issues emerged that might require revisions and updates of the principles and recommendations, such as the increasing use of population registers as source of vital statistics, advances in modern technologies that have helped some countries in accelerating the improvement of their civil registration and vital statistics systems, and the development of statistical systems in countries.

The Meeting will (1) review the Principles and Recommendationsfor updates and elaborations and (2) propose an outline for the next revision of the Recommendations.

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The purpose of the meeting is threefold. First, it aims at identifying the scope and content of contemporary social statistics in order to identify areas that need to be addressed by an international plan of action. In essence, for each social concern there needs to be an accompanying statistical data collection that requires relevant concepts and definitions, international standards, recommended topics, recommended tabulations, defined periodicity, and sources of data. Collected data would also need to be disaggregated by population groups (young, elderly, women, to name a few) and by geographical levels. Second, the meeting will address the issue of an international action plan for improving social statistics, pertaining to areas that require additional work, as well as on related issues such as coordination among various agencies and institutions regarding social statistics at both the national and international levels. This draft action plan would position the United Nations Statistics Division to continue conducting a thorough review and assessment of social statistics and point to the necessary developmental work on international standards. Finally, the meeting is expected to result in the draft terms of reference for the proposed city group, if the need for such a group is clearly identified. The proposal for establishment of the city group replacing the Siena City Group on Social Statistics was initiated at the Seminar on New Directions in Social Statistics, held on 22 February 2008 in New York.

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The objective of the meeting was to review the draft Handbook on Measuring the Economically Active Population in Censuses. This is one of several handbooks being produced to support the activities of the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses. The draft Handbook is an update of a technical report entitled Collection of Economic Characteristics in Population Censuses, which was prepared jointly by UNSD and ILO in 2002. The Handbook takes into account recent developments in the concepts, methods and classifications related to the measurement and characterization of the economically active population, as reflected in the Principles and Recommendations for the Population and Housing Census, Revision 21 adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission in February 2007.

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While the demand for policy-relevant statistics on international migration is increasing, national governments and international bodies are unable to provide the comprehensive assessment needed, mainly because the sources of these data are not sufficiently developed. A recent expert group meeting on measuring international migration convened by the United Nations Statistics Division in New York in December 2006 identified priority areas for improving international migration statistics. The current expert group will address two of them: (a) providing guidance and technical support on the use of censuses and sample surveys, taking into account the preparations already ongoing for the 2010 round of population censuses, to measure aspects of international migration, and (b) developing a handbook focusing on core variables and using case studies to clarify how various sources can be used and/or combined to measure international migration.

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The purpose of the meeting is to critically review contemporary frameworks and different approaches to census mapping and the capabilities offered by advanced technologies (Geographical Information Systems, Global Positioning Systems, Remote Sensing, Internet, etc.) to support census mapping operations. The meeting will also cover possible institutional, organizational and technological challenges. Sessions will focus on detailed discussion related to 1) Geo-coding: concepts and approaches to related data collection; 2) Use of Global Positioning System and geospatial technologies and digital delineation of enumeration areas; 3) Geographic databases, spatial analysis and data dissemination and 4) Organizational and institutional issues.

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The United Nations Statistics Division, in collaboration with The World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is convening an Inter-Agency and Expert Group Meeting on the Development of Gender Statistics to explore ways of strengthening collaboration and promoting partnerships among stakeholders in the development of gender statistics. The meeting will review some of the key initiatives and strategies that are considered as being most successful; identify specific programmes and products that have enhanced capacities at national and regional levels in the collection, compilation and dissemination of gender statistics; and plan for launching an initiative to improve the availability, accessibility and use of reliable gender statistics for planning, monitoring and evaluation, at various levels, in particular at the national level.

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The United Nations Statistics Division seeks through this expert group meeting to assess requirements for international migration statistics in response to policy interest and the challenges faced by national statistical systems in measuring international migration flows and stock. The meeting will review national practices in the compilation of migration statistics and identify difficulties associated with the recommended concepts and definitions. It will explore ways to foster cooperation between policy machineries of governments and their data collection agencies, and develop a plan for the improvement of migration statistics. The outcome will help determine the scope and content of a handbook on statistics of international migration to be prepared by UNSD.

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In implementing the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses, the United Nations Statistics Division is organizing the 2006 Expert Group Meeting on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses in New York, from 10-14 July 2006. This meeting will bring together over 45 experts from all regions with one goal: to review and adopt the revised set of international standards for population and housing censuses as presented in the draft Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2.

This proposed revision on the major international standards and guidelines is a result of broad consultations and contributions from over 100 national experts through UNSD developed and maintained mechanisms and is also taking into consideration regional guidelines, where they were available. The proposed changes refer to introducing 40 recommended census tabulations that each country or area would be called to generate at least once in the period 2005-2014 at the smallest geographical level; new definition and concept of usual residence; several new core topics, such as those related to mortality and the availability of information and communication technology devices in the household; it also presents new approaches to census-taking and the importance of Geographical Information Systems for collecting and disseminating census results.

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The Expert Group Meeting on Principles and Recommendations for Housing Censuses will: (a) discuss, in detail, proposed changes to the text of the current Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses pertaining to housing censuses, (b) identify and elaborate on issues that are not adequately covered in the current version of the Principles and Recommendations, and finally (c) adopt the draft text of the housing census recommendations for submission to the Expert Group Meeting to be held in July 2006.

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The meeting will critically review the housing section of the draft United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2. The outcome of the meeting will be reported to the Expert Group Meeting on the 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses, New York, 10-14 July 2006, and will provide a basis for finalizing the global census recommendations.

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The purpose of this Expert Group Meeting was to fulfill the mandate given by the United Nations Statistics Commission at its 36th session, in March 2005, in regard to updating and revising the United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses. The Expert Group Meeting had three major objectives: (i) To set the general outline of the revised set of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses; (ii) To agree on the timeframe, the division of responsibilities and the organizational framework in regard to drafting the text of the Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Revision 2; (iii) To identify topics that need to be taken into consideration for inclusion and elaboration, as well as emphasizing the output oriented approach to censuses by agreeing on a set of tabulations that need to be produced for the smallest geographical area.

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At its 35th session, the Statistical Commission recommended that an international expert group be formed to focus on critical issues related to planning the next round of population and housing censuses. Recognizing that the United Nations Statistics Division decennial census programme cannot cover all emerging topics, the Commission has asked the expert group to set priorities at its first meeting.

The purpose of the expert group meeting, therefore, is to set priorities and propose concrete outputs for the development of the 2010 World Population and Housing census Programme. Specifically the meeting will have before it relevant sections of the report of the 35th session of the Statistical Commission (see E/2004/24, chap. II. B, para. 2) as well as the draft resolution on the 2010 census round that will be submitted by the Census Symposium to the Statistical Commission at its 36th session. As the first in a series of meetings, the expert group will also establish terms of reference outlining its mandate in relation to the above mentioned Programme.

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The purpose of this Symposium is to set priorities for the upcoming decade round of population and housing censuses in light of the experience from the previous census decade. Specifically the Symposium will provide inputs for the drafting of a resolution requested by the Statistical Commission at its 35th session, calling on the Secretary-General to proceed with the development of a 2010 World Population and Housing Census Programme.

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The purpose of the Expert Group Meeting is to review the Draft Handbook on Designing of Household Sample Surveys. The experts will contribute comments and substantive suggestions aimed at improving the draft.

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The purpose of the Expert Group Meeting is to review the Demographic Yearbook system of data collection and dissemination and propose strategies to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the system and strengthen its outreach programme.

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The United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Setting the Scope of Social Statistics was convened in New York on 6-9 May 2003. The meeting was organized by the Social and Housing Statistics Section of the Demographic and Social Statistics Branch of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), in collaboration with the Siena Group on Social Statistics. The Expert Group Meeting was planned in response to the Statistical Commission’s recognition, at its thirty-third session, of the need for a more systematic development of social statistics.

The objective of the meeting was to propose a programme of work for furthering the development of social statistics, with a view to presenting it to the thirty-fifth session of Statistical Commission for action (for an elaborated statement of the purpose, see information flyer for the Expert Group Meeting, attached as Annex 1).

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The Symposium on Global Review of the 2000 Round of Population and Housing Censuses addressed the question: “When and under what circumstances do censuses succeed?” The Symposium addressed the issues and problems that emerged in the current census round (1995-2004) and discussed modalities countries have adopted to overcome some of the challenges faced by the countries in implementing the census programme. Some of these experiences may serve to guide census planning by countries that will conduct censuses during the next round (2005-2014).

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The meeting brought together a broad array of developed and developing country experts in disability measurement for statistical reporting:- Review and assess current status of methods used in population-based data collection activities to measure disability in national statistical systems. Particular attention was given to questionnaire design;- Develop recommendations and priorities to advance work on measurement of disability;- Contribute to building a network of institutions and experts, including producers and users of disability statistics to implement the developments in this field.

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The main objective of the time use survey is to provide sound statistics on the reality of women and men in Palestine. In particular, TUS provides statistics on the following areas: 1. All activities practiced by the Palestinians. 2. The average time spent in carrying out different activities by the individuals. 3. The percentage of individuals carrying out specific activities. 4. The social environment in which the activity is practiced. 5. The time spent by women in carrying out household activities and productive activities whether paid or unpaid activities. 6. Provide data on the time spent in different activities such as watching television, attending religious ceremonies and participation in sports activities. 7. The time spent in movement. 8. Other related issues.

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A presentation on the EUROSTAT Pilot Survey on Time Use identified problems related to the specification of activities, but noted that the general survey design proved successful. The presentation on the time-use study in Italy also identified problems with the specification of activities and concluded that improvements in survey methods rather than the classification system were required to improve the amount of information specified in time-use diaries.

With respect to objectives and uses of time-use surveys, the priority uses of and interests in time-use data were discussed by each participant for their country. The most common objectives identified by both developed and developing countries, related to issues of gender and work, specifically the division of labour in the home and improvement in the measurement of women’s unpaid work. A related objective concerned the use of time-use statistics in the preparation of household satellite accounts. Another common objective concerned changes in allocation of time across broad categories of activity.

Plans to undertake national time-use studies in three developing countries -- India, the Philippines and South Africa -- were described. Among the objectives for these surveys are to quantify women’s contribution to economic activities, to measure the extent of child labour, and to understand the relationship between welfare and poverty. The participant from India also included among the objectives the need for information on livelihood strategies and on when people are free of work as a basis for planning skills formation, training and other poverty alleviation programmes.

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At its twenty-eighth session (New York, 27 February-3 March 1995), the Statistical Commission, in its consideration of agenda item 12, “Measuring and monitoring economic and social development”, requested its Working Group on International Statistical Programmes and Coordination to consider further the statistical implications of the follow-up to the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen, 6-12 March 1995). The Commission also established the Expert Group on the Statistical Implications of Recent Major United Nations Conferences to draw up a work programme reflecting the major action areas identified by the Summit and indicating where international statistical work in the social field should be concentrated, with due regard to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 5-13 September 1994) and the expected outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 4-15 September 1995). The Commission requested that, in the light of the policy areas identified, the Expert Group propose specific statistical activities for the period 1996-1998, and assign priorities to them based on the skills and financial resources likely to be available in international organizations and countries.

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