SIUBEN Begins Pilot Plan for Census Information Gathering Using Mobile Devices

SIUBEN Begins Pilot Plan for Census Information Gathering Using Mobile Devices

The Coordinating Cabinet of Social Policies through the Unified System of Beneficiaries (SIUBEN), under the direction of Vice President Rafael  Alburquerque,  initiated a pilot program this past weekend in which it will gather census information, using a new mobile device, among poor homes in the municipality of Santo Domingo East.

“Development of the pilot plan will allow us to carry out the necessary tests for the definitive incorporation of this technology while updating information and data on people …”

The pilot plan involves the use of new technology from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Commercial Office of the People’s Republic of China. The pilot plan will gather information in some 700 low income homes in the Los Mina North neighborhood.

“Development of the pilot plan will allow us to carry out the necessary tests for the definitive incorporation of this technology while updating information and data on people who may be eligible for the social plans the government will be carrying out through SIUBEN this coming year that will provide for 1.5 million homes throughout the country,” explained Miriam Rodríguez de Simó, Director of SIUBEN.

Ms. Rodríguez de Simó said that with the incorporation of this cutting edge technology, SIUBEN guarantees high level efficiency and an improvement in the quality of data collected by census takers who deal with the forms filled out by families. This, she added, helps to determine the living situations of families and how or if their level of poverty has changed since they last did a manual census.

The mobile devices, known as PDA (personal digital assistant), rely in a Global Positioning System (GPS) which helps geographically locate each of the homes to be studied and, in the future, will facilitate the task of providing social services and better assist for planning social programs such as the Solidarity Program, the National Health and Social Security System (SENASA) and the National Council on Aging (CONAPE).

Valerie Julliand, resident representative of the UNDP, stressed the importance of this pilot plan and praised the contribution of the Unified System of Beneficiaries. She called the plan an important step for the Dominican Republic in that it allows the country to develop a social policy focused totally on the country’s poor people.  

Julliand said that since 2004, the UNDP has been working closely with SIUBEN in that the role of this organization is to collaborate with the government to make certain that social policies are developed and that they achieve their desired goal. 

Liu Rutao, Adjunct representative from China’s Commercial Office which donated the PDAs to SIUBEN,  stressed the importance of this plan for the benefit of the Dominican people.   

The operation began in home of an undocumented single mother who lives with her three children and nine grandchildren in a small house on a small street known as “The Boulevard of Three Cardboards” in the Los Mina neighborhood which was visited by representatives of SIUBEN and other international organizations.

Other officials also present at the launch of the pilot plan included the engineer Van Elder Espinal, Director of the Administrator of Social Subsidies (ADESS); Juan Salas Rosario, Manager of the Regional 0 of the National Health and Social Security System (SENASA) and Dr. Esther Marte Abreu of the Royal Health Foundation, among others.

Valerie Julliand, UNDP representative; Miriam Rodríguez de Simó, Director of SIUBEN and Liu Rutao, Adjunct representative from China’s Commercial Office speak together at the event marking the beginning of the pilot program.

Miriam Rodríguez de Simó, Director of SIUBEN and UNDP representative Valerie Julliand watch as a census taker uses the new PDA technology to gather information in the poor home of a citizen. .

A SIUBEN census taker gathers information using the new PDA mobile device to gather information as the pilot plan gets underway in Los Mina