Department of Statistics and Community Development (DSCD) has shared the benefits of its pioneering models, its forecasting for future processes and the essential part a census plays in community planning, to some of the most influential census and surveys organisations in the Arab world.

Held up as a prime example of modern population censuses, the DSCD informed participants of the meeting, ‘Task Force on Population and Housing Censuses 2020 for the Arab world', recently held in Egypt, how to optimise housing and population count, including administrative records and family surveys plus regular or digital forms and computerised devices.

Organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for western Asia (UNESCWA) in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics of Egypt (CAPMAS) the meeting scrutinised the latest developments and technologies used in the processes of census undertaking, the lessons learned at Arab and international level and a general plan of action for 2017.

Sharjah’s recent combination of modern procedures, self-enumeration technique (I-census) as well as establishing dedicated call centres and state-of-the-art technology was also instrumental in helping to review and reassess the challenges of executing 2020 register-based censuses.

Representatives heard how DSCD’s progress in adopting, and innovating, best practices will provide a benchmark for training census teams who play an integral part in gathering information using the most sophisticated census programs and technology. And in the interests of transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, DSCD has established a special editing team to review the accuracy of the data, confirm DSCD’s efforts in raising public awareness of the importance of censuses and appraise the value of its social responsibility.

Commenting on the participation of Sharjah’s DSCD, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani, Chairman of DSCD, said, "Thanks to the vision and directives of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, in a very short time, DSCD has been able to not only adopt the techniques of implementing successful censuses it, in reality, has pioneered its own methods.

The most recent census in the Arab world ‘Sharjah Census 2015’ used the latest programs and systems available and our participation in this meeting is a great endorsement of the level of expertise we have achieved.