Page 223 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS224 Jean-Michel Durr
Firstly, the Government provides the legal framework to conduct the
census. A comprehensive framework, entrusting the census agency to carry
out census activities, providing for the role of government departments in the
operation, and including provisions related to the obligations of the
participants as well as confidentiality safeguard measures is needed to
conduct the census in a proper way.
Secondly. Government provides funding for the census, at least partially.
Agreement by Government on the level of funding for the census is needed
early in the cycle, from preparation to data collection and processing, so that
other aspects of census planning can proceed.
Thirdly, the Government provides logistical support to the census. For
example, in some countries, teachers are mobilized as enumerators, with the
support of the Ministry of Education. Ministry of Justice provides access to the
prisons for the enumeration of prisoners. Other government agencies
sometimes supply specialist services such as form printing, mapping, transport
services or media liaison. At local level, local authorities are called upon to
provide training rooms and equipment, and meeting space for field staff.
In this context, the population and housing census can be considered as
an administrative operation, under the control of the Government, rather than
as strictly statistical operation. The perception of a census as a largely
administrative operation could lead to reluctance of the population to
participate in a governmental operation, people not trusting the neutrality of
the operation and the confidentiality of their responses.

2. Government or political interference in census operations
However, it may happen that the government goes beyond its supporting
role as defined above and attempts to interfere in the technical organisation
and conduct of the census. Political leaders may also tend to interfere with
census operations in relation with their political agenda.
Interference can be defined as actions to prevent a process or activity from
continuing or being carried out properly. Objectives may be to influence the
results of the census, for example in terms of size of the population at national
or sub-national level, or in terms of the relative weight of population groups
(religious or ethnic groups, for example) or seize opportunity of the census to
highlight its achievements.
Government or political interference, as defined above, can take various
forms: introduction or removal of specific questions; exclusion of specific
population groups or inclusion of non-resident groups; alteration of the
results during the processing phase; delays or non-dissemination of the
results. Several steps of census operations can thus be affected. Based on
observations or in documentation provided by international monitoring

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