11 to 15 November 2019, Frascati, Italy ¨C A total of 30 participants attended the fifth Center for Development Data (C4D2) International Training Week titled ¡°Special Topics and Recent Developments in Sampling Theory and Practice¡± held under the aegis of the Partnership for Capacity Development in Household Surveys for Welfare Analysis.
The five-day training included lectures and seminars on Sampling principles; Testing sampling designs through sampling simulations; Sampling frames ¨C problems, consequences and solutions; Stratification as an optimization problem; Sampling with remote sensing data and gridded sampling frames; Integration of data sources via statistical matching; Accuracy in official statistics; Total non-response in sample surveys; New sampling strategy in social surveys; Use of auxiliary information for planning the Post Enumeration Survey (PSE) in the population census; Introduction to adaptive sampling; and Digital transformation in action: moving to a data driven organization.
The training aimed at capacitating instructors from the regional statistical training centers on new sampling solutions to address statistical challenges and develop smart solutions to sample surveys thereby among other things, improve the reporting of SDGs for the full benefit of the region¡¯s citizens.
Participants were from the following seven centers: - Eastern Africa Statistical Training Center (EASTC); ?cole Nationale de la Statistique et de l¡¯Analyse ?conomique (ENSAE); ?cole Nationale Sup¨¦rieure de Statistique et d'?conomie Appliqu¨¦e (ENSEA); Institut Sous-R¨¦gional de Statistique et d¡¯?conomie Appliqu¨¦e (ISSEA); Institut de Formation et de Recherche D¨¦mographiques (IFORD); School of Statistics and Planning, Makerere University (SSP); and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Course facilitators included sampling experts from the World Bank, the Italian National Institute of Statistics; the Food Agricultural Organization; the European Commission; and an independent expert.
The training was officially opened by Giovanni D¡¯Alessio and Alberto Zezza, the Director of Statistical Analysis Department of the Bank of Italy, and the Program Manager of C4D2 respectively who emphasized that the choice of the topic is very appropriate as this is a time of changes and the field of sample surveys makes no exception.