THE National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday 6 February 2018 met with officials from the United Nations Population Fund, formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA)-Pacific Sub-Regional Office (PSRO).
The session was held at the NSO conference room in Honiara.
During the meeting Government Statistician Douglas Kimi informed the UNFPA regional team on a number of significant national statistical surveys the NSO has conducted recently and the preparatory work the office (NSO) is undertaking leading up to the major population and housing census next year (2019).
It was a very successful dialogue as officials talk ideas and issues that could bolster and pave way forward for lasting partnership between both organisations.
“The main emphasis was on the 2019 national census project document and how funding be accessed and also in mobilizing funding to support the NSO together with the technical support that will be required for the census comes 2019,” Mr. Kimi said.
The UNFPA-regional reps were also told of the current work such as the village resource survey 2017-2018 (VRS) and listing that is currently being progressed towards the implementation of the 2019 census project and the National Government (SIG) commitment in supporting it.
Discussions with UNFPA also centred around technical assistance support and related joint collaborate work.
Apart from the 2019 census deliberations, the next planned Demographic Health Survey (DHS) (ongoing) and the Multi-Cluster Survey were also discussed.
The UNFPA team from Suva, Fiji based office are currently in the country to carry out Implementing Partner (IP) consultation dialogue on strategic investments given UNFPA 6th Country Cycle 2018-2022- (5 years plan) in view of addition resources and support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to UNFPA Support.
The team visited different countries in the Pacific region to carry out the IP consultation dialogue on strategic over the period of the cycle. This week the team will meet/dialogue with different Government Stakeholders or IP within the framework of investment cycle.
Meanwhile, Government Statistician Douglas Kimi thanked the UNFPA team for the courtesy call and for the deliberations which will surely pave a way forward for the NSO in executing its national survey projects and at the same time strengthen a good working relation between UNFPA and the NSO.
As part of the 2019 census planning and preparatory work, the SINSO is currently undertakes the Village Resources Survey 2017-2018 and the Household listing exercise commencing last year.
The VRS 2017-2018 survey will collect information on services to the village including mapping.
The household listing exercise will collect information on households GPS and the number of people per household by gender.
This is the basis for Census enumeration areas (EA) demarcation.
The survey (VRS 2017-2018) now in its second phase.
Source: SINSO Media