NFPA staff accompanied a delegation from Timor-Leste General Directorate of Statistics (GDS) to Indonesia in July that met with the Badan Pusat Statistics of Indonesia (BPS) to share knowledge and lessons learnt from their respective 2010 Population and Housing Censuses.
The two countries have previously signed a memorandum when Indonesia provided technical support to for the 2010 Timor-Leste Population and Housing Censuses. Supported by UNFPA and the Indonesian BPS, the 2010 censuses in the country ran successfully. In the view of the upcoming Population and Housing Censuses in 2015, Timor-Leste will once again receive support from Indonesia in the areas of methodology and design, field operations, and data processing.
In addition, the Demographic Institute of the Indonesian University (UI) will assist in the preparation of 2015 particularly on GIS/Mapping. Both governments have also been cooperating in the area education for many years. The Indonesian University currently hosts a number of students from the General Directorate of Statistics of Timor-Leste. It is expected that these students will gain expertise and capacity to support the 2015 censuses. During the visit, it was also proposed that a number of these students travel to Timor-Leste to conduct small researches and projects during the break time in the month of September.
More GDS staff will receive support from Indonesia through education in future. The General Directorate has committed to fully fund 10 students for the 2014 academic year. The International Statistics Cooperation will develop a new selection process to intake the prospective students for the coming year.
The General Directorate of Statistics will hold an international workshop on census and population in October 2013, in which the Head of BPS and the Head of Population and Manpower Studies of the University of Indonesia will be present. The workshop will provide a basis for further discussion about the best practices and strategies in support of Timor-Leste's national development plan.
