The Department of Information, in collaboration with the Gambia Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF on Wednesday held a daylong orientation workshop for journalists on the findings of multiple cluster indicator survey.
Speaking at the opening session, held at the Girls Guide School hall along MDI road, Mr.Nyakassi M.B. Sanyang, the General Statistician for GBOS, said MICS is a survey programme, developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund, aimed to provide internationally comparable, statistically-rigorous data on the situation of children and women.
He said the first round of surveys (MICS1) was carried out in over 60 countries in 1995 in response to the world summit for children.
He said a second round of (MICS2) in 2000 was to increase the depth of the survey, allowing monitoring of multiple indicators.
The third round of (MICS3), which started in 2006 aimed to produce data measuring progress towards the realisation of the Millennium Developments Goals (MDGs), a world fit for children and other major relevant issues, he added.
He said The Gambia is not participating in MICS5, which is supposed to be conducted in 2013/14. As he stated the country has just conducted the first-ever demographic and health survey that collects almost the same indicators as MICS.
For her part, Mrs. Meritxell Relano, assistant UNICEF representative, said they were at the briefing to present the results of the fourth MICS to the media colleagues.
She said MICS is UNICEF’S international household survey initiative which assists countries to collect and analyze data in order to fill data gaps for monitoring the situation of children and women.
She said the MICS survey tools are developed by the UNICEF, after consultation with relevant experts from various UN organisations, as well as interagency monitoring groups.
According to her, UNICEF works closely with other household’s survey programmes, in particular the demographic and health survey programme to harmonize survey questions and modules and to ensure a coordinated approach to survey implementation, with the objective of providing comparability across surveys and to avoid duplication of efforts.
For his part, Malick Jones, DPS at the Ministry of Information, said the first round survey was conducted in 60 countries, which he said, were in 1995 and it was as a result of the world summit on children.
Jones, who said he is also made to understand that in The Gambia they had carried out four surveys in 1996, 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2010, said women and children are the most vulnerable in society.
