Think tank issues fresh warning on census

Inits second report on the census this year, the Brussels-based think tank said the data collection exercise had created political tensions and sparked conflict at a crucial moment in Myanmar's transition and peace process.

The ICG says that the need for a census in Myanmar – the country's first in more than 30 year – and the value of the data that it can collect was never in doubt. It acknowledges that some controversies are inevitable in any census.

"However, the way that the process has been designed and prepared, insufficiently sensitive to the country's evolving realities and the major risks that they present, has greatly exacerbated its negative impact," it says in the report, titled "Counting the costs: Myanmar's problematic census".

The ICG says the responsibility for the failures of the process and the damage it has caused lies partly with the United Nations Population Fund, the UNFPA, which provided technical assistance for the exercise, and partly with the government, under whose authority the census was conducted.

"But there has also been a lack of oversight from the UN system and from census donors who funded most of the process and were aware of the risks, about which the ICG had warned in a February 12 report which described the data collection exercise from March 30 to April 10 as "fraught with danger" and "ill-advised".

"When the dangers started to be realised, far from advocating the major changes that would have been required to minimise harm – a postponement or scaling back of the census – key census donors pushed the government to continue with its plans essentially unchanged," said the May 15 report.

It said major last-minute revisions were only suggested in the days leading up to the start of the count on March 30 after violence had broken out in Rakhine State, but the government decided to go ahead.

"Then, rather than accept part of the responsibility, UNFPA and some donors issued statements that attempted to shift the blame wholly onto the government," the report.

The ICG says the" significant risks" involved with the timing and manner in which the census results are released will need to be effectively mitigated.

"This will not be easy given that the leverage that the UN and donors have over the process, at this late stage, is much diminished," it says.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/think-tank-issues-fresh-warning-on-census/