International Monitoring Operation: BiH to finalise and publish Census results urgently

Following the recent decision of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Agency for Statistics (BHAS) to adopt the programme to process census questionnaires, the International Monitoring Operation (IMO) for the 2013 Population and Housing Census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, met with representatives of the government, including Minister of Civil Affairs Adil Osmanovic as Census Coordinator, and with the statistical institutes on 26th May 2016. The IMO discussed the implementation of the adopted data processing programme and further steps towards the publication of the final results.

The IMO, chaired by Pieter Everaers, Director at EUROSTAT and responsible for Statistical Cooperation with Enlargement Countries, welcomes the decision on the data processing programme following a period of more than two years after the enumeration. The adopted methodology follows the recommendations by the IMO, including recommendations concerning the resident population. The recommendations on how to determine the resident population was first addressed by the IMO in late 2014, based on international recommendations on population and housing censuses.

In the European Statistical System, the role of the head of the national statistical institute in taking methodological decisions is based on the principle of professional independence of the chief statistician and is guaranteed through the European Statistics Code of Practice and the regulation on European Statistics. We encourage all stakeholders to provide the support necessary to implement this principle and furthermore to fully respect the principle of confidentiality of data throughout the rest of the process, leaks of non final statistical data are unacceptable. As the final results are not yet published, the final assessment by the IMO will only follow after the dissemination of the results.

In view of the Census Law and the provision to disseminate the results by 1st of July 2016, the IMO strongly recommends the statistical institutes to plan and define the remaining steps necessary, including the details of the publication of the census results. In this regard the IMO encourages the statistical institutes to disseminate a first publication, which includes basic variables for the resident population, without considerable delays.

Furthermore, considering that more than two years passed since the population data were collected in October 2013, the IMO urges BHAS and the entity statistical institutes to finalise the census operation in accordance with the international recommendations. Timely publication of the census results is crucial considering the relevance of the population figures for planning and policy purposes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The IMO, mandated to monitor the whole process from preparations to dissemination of the results, may also reconsider its involvement in the BiH Census in case of considerable further delayed publication of the results, which may also impact their relevance.

The European Union attaches crucial importance to the census as essential to perform accurate economic and social planning, and as a basis for conducting the agriculture census. It is also important in the context of European integration including the implementation of the reform agenda.

The IMO will continue to monitor progress with regard to implementing the census methodology in accordance with international recommendations and will follow closely the developments towards publication of the final results.

 

Background:

The IMO was established by the European Commission in 2012, upon invitation of the BiH Council of Ministers to ensure that the Census preparations and implementation comply with European and international standards. The IMO is comprised of representatives of EUROSTAT, chairing the Management Group, European Commission Directorate-General NEAR, CoE (Council of Europe), UNSD (United Nations Statistics Division), UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) and UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).

Europa.ba