A Steering Committee, under the chairmanship of the Director General of Census and Statistics, consisting of officers of the DCS was set up. Progress of census activities which are being carried out is continuously monitored and major problems encountered during the census planning operation are discussed at the Census Steering Committee which meets regularly.

In addition to the Steering Committee, fifteen technical sub committees are appointed. All these sub committees are given Terms of References and time targets to complete the work entrusted to them.

A consultancy mission was carried out in March 2009 by Dr. Sam Suharto, former head of the National Statistical Office in Indonesia and subsequently of United Nations Statistics Division, as a result of a request made by the DCS and with the financial assistance from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country office.

The consultancy was to find out the most suitable method of enumeration to be adopted at the CPH2011 in order to capture total population without omission or duplication.

At the end of the consultancy, Dr.Suharto recommended a mix method of enumeration to be adopted at the CPH2011. 

Dr.Meena Acharya from Nepal, an expert on census engendering process carried out a consultancy in May 2009 to provide necessary guidance to the DCS on engendering the CPH2011.

The consultancy was followed by a national workshop on engendering the census was conducted with the participation of central and district staff of DCS. This was also attended by participants from other government and non government organizations who are involved in gender related activities/research.

The DCS conducted regional workshops with the aim of getting feedback on suggestions to improve field work and supervision of CPH2011. These workshops were held in Central Province (Kandy), Southern Province (Galle), Eastern Province (Ampara), North Central Province (Anuradhapura) and Uva Province (Badulla) with the financial assistance from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Taking into consideration the comments received at regional workshops held in provinces, comments of GAs/District Secretaries, and requests made by other governmental/non-governmental organizations, the ‘Questionniare Designing Sub Committee’ for the CPH2011 has prepared a draft questionnaire.

This questionnaire was sent to almost 300 government/ non government, and international organizations and various local experts in related fields for their comments. In addition, the DCS conducted a User Meeting to get suggestions/ comments on the contents of the census schedule from census data users.

Mr.Udaya Seneviratne, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury honoured the occasion as the Chief Guest and about 120 data users from various organizations shared their views and expertise for improving the census schedule. The DCS would like to thank all the participants and their respective organizations for their contribution towards the success of the User Meeting.