E-census organisers ready to tackle challenges head-on
MUSCAT: Solutions for the challenges facing Oman’s e-census 2020 have been aired, as the government looks to smoothen the process of gathering data as part of the census.
Meetings to discuss the challenges faced by the e-census organisation and the solutions to them were held by the Technical Committee of the Electronic Census of Population, Housing and Establishments 2020.
The meeting was chaired by
Dr Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Barwani, Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Statistics and Information, and Head of the Committee. Complementing the meeting, a workshop was organised to examine the project’s current status and explore solutions for main challenges related to data matching and updating. The technical committee members and database working teams participated in the workshop.
Al Barwani commenced the workshop by welcoming the participants and appreciating the efforts made toward enhancing the database of the concerned authorities and completing them. He also complimented the efforts made in the first phase of the nationwide campaign for updating data “Your Data Your Identity”. Furthermore, he emphasised the importance of community participation in building the future.
“Through e-census 2020, we seek to set high standards and ensure the project is regarded as a radical model in this field. This can only be achieved by cooperation and teamwork of all in order to overcome the challenges that we may encounter during the project,” said Dr. Khalifa bin Abdullah Al Barwani.
Two sessions
The workshop consisted of two sessions.
The first discussed the current status of the project, the progress made in matching and correcting the data, “Your Data Your Identity” campaign’s activities and forms of interaction of the campaign’s participants.
“The first phase of the campaign primarily focused on raising awareness of the project, its importance, objectives and the kind of data that needs to be updated by individuals and institutions,” commented Omar Al Ismaili, Director General of the e-census.
The second session of the workshop discussed challenges, proposed solutions, tasks to be executed during the upcoming period as well as the importance of encouraging people and residents to update their data.
“The geographical distribution of people is considered an essential statistical indicator that can be utilised to establish key projects such as roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructures,” commented Zayed Al Harrasi, Population Database Manager. “People and residents are required to update their current residence address at the Royal Police of Oman (ROP). The electricity bill should be taken with them when visiting the ROP. Additionally, the guardians of school students are required to include their electricity account number in the Educational Portal of Oman,” he further added.