Panamá: National Institute of Statistics Introduces (INEC) the DDI (March 2014)

A Microdata Management Training was held in Panamá on March 31 – April 4, 2014. The training was held in the Higher Institute of Auditing, Control and Governance facilities, with twelve participants, two from the National System of Statistics (SEN) and ten from the National Institute of Statistics (INEC). The five day-training course was divided into two parts:

1. An introduction to the ADP tasks activities in Latin America
2. A hands-on practice session on using the Metadata Editor.

Individual projects were uploaded into a virtual national data archive which allowed the participants to visualize the published metadata and understand access rights to the microdata. Ten studies were documented for instructional purposes. More review of these studies will be required before publishing. The ten participants will be assigned to train other staff members of various data producing departments assuring institutionalization of the tools. The comments from the participants during the final session were very positive and supportive towards promoting the adoption of the DDI standard in INEC and the need to further apply this knowledge and expand it to other departments within INEC and other agencies of SEN. The ADP will continue to support more documentation training workshops, quality review of documentation and assist in the development of dissemination policies within INEC and SEN. A National Data Archive (NADA) will be installed at the INEC.