Viewpoints
Planning For Changing Populations And Societies
Why we need up-to-date statistics
Up-to-date population statistics and other social and economic data are vital tools for planners and decision-makers. In the Pacific Islands region, SPC (Secretariat of the Pacific Community) has been assisting with the collection and dissemination of national and regional statistics for three decades.
SPC provides specialised technical assistance to its Pacific member countries across a broad spectrum of demographic, social and economic statistics and applications, particularly for smaller islands countries and territories that face acute skill shortages and high turnover of skilled staff. This assistance is in the form of training and specific technical assistance with data collection, analysis, reporting and information management.
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"SPC's Statistics and Demography programmes were established in the late sixties in response to the need for good, quality information, that is both reliable and accessible. This is critically needed by decision-makers and policy-makers for the sustainable development of our region," said Lourdes Pangelinan, SPC's Director-General.
In a move which has major implications for the Pacific region, the United Nations is committed to making the right to development a reality for everyone, and to freeing the entire human race from want. This came in the form of the Millennium Declaration which included a set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
"Two of SPC's current demography/population and statistics activities are focused on providing easy access to statistical information needed for good planning and good governance that will achieve the MDGs in the Pacific," Pangelinan said, noting that both major activities have been made possible by funding from the United Kingdom's DFID agency.
At last! An easy path to information about the Pacific
Almost everyone who has tried to find some quick facts about the Pacific has been disappointed. The information was either hard to find, or even worse, it could be found in a number of places with many disagreeing with one another. There is a lot of data out there that relates to the Pacific! A quick example‹searching the Net for "Cook Islands GDP"‹returns about 28,000 possible sites. But how does anyone know which one is the "best"?
SPC is addressing this issue through the creation of a network of national statistical websites for each member country, all accessible via the Internet and linked to the PRISM site‹the Pacific Regional Information System www.spc.int/prism. Almost every Pacific Islands economy now have their own official statistics website, and the statistics which are going up on the web are the ones produced by the countries themselves.
So no more wondering which of the 28,000 sites you should go to for the Cook Islands GDP. Go to PRISM and you have an easy choice: either look at the GDP table for all the Pacific Islands, or choose the link to go straight to the Cook Islands site. On top of its early success, the future of PRISM is looking very bright indeed.
In early January, AusAID confirmed it would be funding the ongoing development of PRISM for the next three years. This will be a real boost to the improved sharing of information throughout the region.
Mapping data - creating information
Populations are not distributed equally across a country; neither are manifestations of developments such as educational enrolment, economic activity, access to water supply and other services. Development plans and policies have to take into account the patterns of such distributions. Mapping the patterns, and highlighting similarities and contrasts visually, can make these patterns clearer than just a table of simple figures or a bar chart.
Imagine you were planning the development of a new water supply system in Vanuatu. You want to identify areas of highest need, and where to direct your efforts most effectively. You would need statistics about population, incomes, location of present industries and services, and information about recent and estimated future trends and developments. SPC has developed a geographic information system software tool, PopGIS, to integrate available population, social and economic statistics and services data. PopGIS allows planners and statisticians to examine data for the country displayed in a variety of ways in maps, different graphics and standard tables, and at various geographic scales. All the information is provided on a CD-ROM.
A well constructed map not only gets such messages across to different audiences in a clear-cut way, but more importantly, images also have a more powerful impact than numbers or words per se.
Put in a nutshell, the overriding purpose of developing national population GIS system is to make official data and statistics more accessible and user-friendly and relevant to both producers and key users, thus allowing them to undertake many of their tasks more effectively. SPC is currently finalising development of national PopGIS systems for Vanuatu, Kiribati, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia. Plans are underway to extend this system later in the year to the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Wallis and Futuna, and subsequently to all interested Pacific islands countries.
Garth Parry is head of the SPC Statistics unit and Dr Gerald Haberkorn is head of SPC Demography and Population programme.
