The Innovative Methods of Contemporary ICT Application: Challenging to Enumerate on Population Census 2010 in Timor Leste

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1 The Innovative Methods of Contemporary ICT Application: Challenging to Enumerate on Population Census 2010 in Timor Leste Waris Marsisno Researcher BPS-Statistics Indonesia & the Statistics Institute Indonesia Sri Hartini Rachmad Researcher BPS-Statistics Indonesia & the Statistics Institute Indonesia Yuliana Ria Uli Sitanggang Training and Education Center & the Statistics Institute Indonesia Abstract This paper aims to discuss the implementation of contemporary ICT application, called short messaging service (SMS), in supporting the monitoring process during the field enumeration period. This technology was remarkable useful, effective and cheap to overcome the field monitoring in Timor Leste which has geographical and infrastructure barriers. Best practices in the management along with field monitoring using SMS reports were believed to have positive impact on the result of the 2010 Timor Leste population and Housing Census. The differences of total population in Timor Leste between preliminary results (reported on October 2010, one month after field works completed) and final results (reported on April 2011) is only 173 persons out of 1.07 million. Keywords: population and housing census, ICT implementation, SMS reporting. Introduction The primary objective of the 2010 Population and Housing Census of Timor Leste (the 2010 TLS Census, hereafter) is to produce essential benchmark information on the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the population. This is the second population census after this country gained its independence. The first population census was conducted in Because of its importance of the results of the 2010 TLS Census particular management measures had been implemented. These measures include the high level support from government and UNFPA, publicity and advocacy strategy, collaboration from ISF and UNMIT, 1

2 South-South cooperation, enumeration of dignitaries, and competitive recruitment, training and enumeration. Along with other challenges such as political issues and disputed boundaries of aldeia (part of a village), suco (village) and sub-district, there was a big challenge resulted from rainfall season during the enumeration period. To support management to take necessary measures in the field, field monitoring report became one of important part to keep the completion of enumeration on schedule with relatively accurate result. Problem The field enumeration of the 2010 TLS Census was conducted on 11 July to 25 July For the monitoring report to be useful, it is important to find the best way to deliver reports from the fields as fast as possible. Timor Leste consists of 13 districts, 65 sub-districts, 442 sucos and 2225 aldeias. All these administrative areas are divided into 1828 enumeration areas (EA). Considering geographical and infrastructure conditions during the enumeration period, the choice of technology to be applied for reporting the result of field monitoring would not be much. Courier services would be slow and almost impossible. The same was also true for online reporting, since internet service was only available in Dili at that time. The only plausible choice was to use short messaging service (SMS) technology. The available mobile phone service provider (Timor Telecom) covered almost all part of the country, including the enclave district of Oecussi. Methods To overcome the problem related to SMS inflow, the area were divided into three regions: Region 1comprising of districts Baucau, Lautem, Viqueque, Ainaro, Manufahi, Manatuto. Region 2 comprising of districts Aileu, Dili, Ermera. Region 3 comprising of districts Bobonaro, Covalima, Liquica, Oecussi. The reporting procedure was as follows (see Figure1): Field enumerator submitted documents of enumerated EA to a sub-district coordinator. 2

3 Sub-district coordinator filled out summary form and reported through SMS using special designed structure message to the national data processing centre. Reporting from sub-districts to the national data processing centre was made once for every three days. Based on these field report then summary of monitoring report was produced and reported to the census management. Figure 1: Reporting procedure of field monitoring in the 2010 TLS Census Result Total population of Timor Leste as reported in the preliminary results on 20 October 2010 was 1,066,582. Whilst the final result as reported on April 2011, total population of Timor Leste is 1,066,409. It shows that the difference of total population between preliminary and final results is only 173 persons or about percent. 3

4 Although the difference in total population for the whole country is very small, at district level the differences are still relatively large. As can be seen from Table 1, the differences by sex are also relatively large. Table 1. Preliminary and Final Results of Population of Timor Leste in the 2010 Census Source: District Difference Final Results (April 2011) Preliminary Results (October 2010) (Preliminary-Final) Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Ainaro 30,183 28,992 59,175 30,014 29,368 59, Aileu 22,902 21,423 44,325 23,306 22,206 45, Baucau 56,374 55, ,694 55,794 55, , Bobonaro 45,915 46,134 92,049 44,423 45,364 89, Covalima 29,982 29,473 59,455 30,188 29,875 60, Dili 124, , , , , , Ermera 59,099 57, ,064 57,566 57, , Liquica 32,240 31,163 63,403 32,021 31,308 63, Lautem 29,404 30,383 59,787 29,450 30,768 60, Manufahi 25,060 23,568 48,628 25,116 23,778 48, Manatuto 21,844 20,898 42,742 21,849 21,397 43, Oecussi 31,831 32,194 64,025 32,228 33,296 65, Viqueque 34,976 35,060 70,036 34,784 35,393 70, TOTAL 544, ,211 1,066, , ,435 1,066, NSD and UNFPA Population and Housing Census 2010 Timor Leste: Preliminary Results NSD and UNFPA Population and Housing Census of Timor Leste, Volume 2: Population distribution by administrative areas. Conclusion The implementation of simple ICT, i.e. SMS, had helped to improve quality of census data in Timor Leste. The difference in total population between preliminary and final results was very small. However the result also shows that differences by districts and by sex are relatively large. There are two possible identified sources for these large differences: Differences at district level might be attributed to disputed boundaries of administrative areas as well as inaccurate recording of area code in the field enumeration. Differences by sex could be attributed mainly to inaccurate counting and recording population by sex in summary forms. 4

5 References NSD and UNFPA Population and Housing Census 2010 Timor Leste: Preliminary Results NSD and UNFPA Population and Housing Census of Timor Leste, Volume 2: Population distribution by administrative areas. Waris Marsisno Pengolahan data monitoring sensus penduduk dan perumahan Technical Report. Waris Marsisno Pedoman pengisian form monitoring untuk Sub-district Coordinator dan District Census Manager. Technical Report. 5

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