7-11 February 2011 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and 21-25 February Manila, Philippines

Two regional training workshops on the documentation and archiving of agricultural censuses and surveys were held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Manila, Philippines.

The objective of the workshops was to train participants from 15 countries in the Africa Region and 14 from Asia on the use the Microdata Management Toolkit for the documentation of Agricultural Census and Surveys, and to initiate the documentation of their latest agricultural censuses and surveys. The documentation is compliant with international standards set by the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) and Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).  

All participants successfully documented their censuses and surveys. The toolkit and associated standards (DDI, DCMI) promoted jointly by the IHSN and the FAO were very well received. Some participants requested further support at the national level.

Briefing on country practice was provided by Mr Yakob Mudesir, DDG of the Ethiopian CSA and by Grace del Prado and Ana Piad of the NSO Philippines. The respective organizations are some of the most advanced on these issues. The presentations covered documentation, archiving and dissemination. The benefits and challenges associated with these activities were discussed.

The IHSN/ADP Secretariat and the FAO statistics have engaged in a joint activity of promoting good documentation and archiving of agricultural censuses. Both workshops targeted primarily non-ADP countries who did not document their latest agricultural censuses. The expected output is a better use of properly documented datasets and improved microdata management in national agencies in charge of agricultural statistics.

‘By the second day you could see the fruitfulness and importance of the [metadata] system.’  Participant, Regional Workshop Addis Ababa.