OECS Secretariat, Castries, St. Lucia, November 2010.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat in collaboration with the Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), will from 15^th – 18^th November, 2010 convene an OECS workshop on Computer Editing of Population and Housing Census Data in St. Kitts and Nevis.This activity is being held as part of ongoing technical assistance being provided to the OECS by the UNFPA, in support of the 2011 OECS Population and Housing Censuses, and is in direct response to a request by OECS Member States for technical support in the editing aspects of census data processing.

The workshop will focus on the techniques and procedures used in editing of census data and will impart basic concepts and tools to allow each participating country to develop a preliminary editing guide for its census data. Emphasis will be placed on the development of editing specifications and data codes which will later be translated into programming language. This process will require a team effort involving subject matter specialists and data-processing staff from OECS National Statistical offices.

The workshop is expected to contribute to the successful processing of census data in preparation for its tabulation, which is a vital step in the successful implementation of OECS Population and Housing Censuses in 2011, and the production of comparable data useful for policy and decision making, as the OECS progresses towards implementation of an Economic Union among its Member States. Additionally, the workshop is also expected to facilitate the establishment of dialogue between the subject matter specialist and the data processing staff, in order that editing and imputations rules are developed.