Some Experiences with the Planning and Management of PHCs

1. ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean Some Experiences with the Planning and Management of PHCs GIS/Management Workshop for 2010 Round of PHCs Port of Spain October 22-26, 2007

2. Planning • Initiate Planning Activities • Updating Census Legislation • Budgeting • Sensitizing Local Authorities • Sensitizing Grassroots People • Setting up Census Committee • Census Subcommittees (questionnaire, publicity, training, field work, data processing etc.) • Mapping

3. FINAL QUESTIONNAIRE • Be reminded it is a Population Census i.e. Fertility, Migration & Mortality; • Discuss urgent National data needs; • Consult the UN Manual; • Test individual questions and entire questionnaire for smooth flow of questions, clarity and completion time

4. FINAL QUESTIONNAIRE(cont’d) • Most important instrument since it is main source of data capture; • Must be user friendly and in language that respondent understands; • Very important that the interviewer fully understands ALL questions in order to explain to respondent; • Short as possible.

5. PUBLICITY • Extremely essential to the conduct of a good PHC; • However, strike correct balance – too much could be counterproductive; • Capture essence of census in theme song/jingle and video; • The frequency of playing and showing jingle and video should be gradually increased until peaks; • Aim for something ‘hot and spicy’ i.e. an infectious rhythm that encourages dancing

6. PUBLICITY (cont’d) • Census Slogan; • Town and Village Meetings; • TV and radio appearances; • Census Giveaways (T-Shirts, Pens, Pencils, Writing Pads, Prizes for radio and newspaper quizzes etc.) • Sensitization of Public and Private officials; • Sensitization of Politicians (Junior and Senior); • Appeal on Radio and TV at appropriate time by Census Officer.

7. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING • Recruitment plan and policy should be transparent; • Expect strong political pressures to recruit ‘cronies’ but respond by having objective process and procedures; • A training PLAN should be designed to ensure proper training of all staff involved in the PHC – existing, new, senior, junior, coders/editors, supervisors, enumerators etc. • Use different modalities of training; • Standardize training as far as possible;

8. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING (cont’d) • For Fieldstaff, Training of Trainers should first be done; • A standard training manual is recommended and should be adapted to suit supervisors or enumerators; • Training of both supervisors and enumerators should be decentralized; • At least one full week of training will be necessary – maybe even an extra day; • Training should be as interactive as possible – trainers should be fully conversant with process and motivating but never boring;

9. RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING (cont’d) • Develop comprehensive training manuals; • Emphasis should be placed on the conduct of several “Practice Interviews”; • Emphasize the need for staff to be fully knowledgeable of the questions on the questionnaire and WHY they are being asked? • Ensure tests on theory and practice;

10. DATA PROCESSING • Manual editing/checking in accordance with a written manual; • Computer editing (consistency checks, range checks etc.); • Post data capture editing; • Data Capture: data entry or scanning (OMR or OCR); • Data Evaluation – need for procedural manual;

11. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS • Early dissemination promotes good public relations; • Headcount by sex should be released early after completion of fieldwork; • Basic descriptive report should be done shortly after data cleaning and evaluation; • Thematic reports should be planned for early after enumeration phase;

12. Thank You