In the era of evidence-based policy, the evidence is crucial. While there have been attempts to generate and gather evidence, relatively little attention has been paid to the quality of evidence. This field of enquiry remains under-researched in most developing countries. In research methodology courses, which are a part of curricula in these countries, the discussion is largely confined to introduction to statistical techniques and tools and sources of data. There is hardly any discussion on the quality of data. Even training programmes and capacity building workshops do not pay attention to this issue. As a result, young researchers often do not consider it worthwhile to invest their time and efforts in examining data quality.
The workshop seeks to sensitise researchers, young faculty members, and data journalists to the possible sources of inaccuracies and errors in censuses, which form the bedrock of the official statistical system, and sample surveys. The methods to evaluate the quality of data will form the mainstay of the discussion.
Outcomes
The workshop will train the participants about tools and techniques to evaluate the data quality. It is expected that the attendees would be able to utilise these techniques to evaluate the quality of data collected in censuses and sample surveys of different countries. These techniques will be specifically relevant for evaluating the data quality in developing countries as the quality of data for several such countries is still deficient.
Presenters