The sixth meeting of the Consortium Board was held on 9 and 10 January 2003 in The Hague (The Netherlands). It was hosted by the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). Mr. John Hobcraft chaired the meeting.
GGP Characteristics
The Board discussed the characteristics of the GGP, which will be:
- A ten–year multi–round panel–based study
- With a sample size of about 10,000 persons aged 18–79 years, equally divided between women and men
Questionnaire Development Group 1 (QDG 1)
The QDG 1 underlined the novelty of the GGS in addressing the changing relationships between genders and between generations and pointed out the age group chosen for the questionnaire as one of the biggest innovation. The results of the two pilot studies carried out in the north of the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation have been reviewed, which are encouraging.
Contextual Database Working Group (CDWG)
The CDWG underlined that it has based its deliberations on the key concept of a welfare–state policy orientation and requested guidance from the CB with regard to the nature and content of the database: detailed or synthetic data content, a national or sub–national level and whether an historical background is needed. The CB decided that some minimum key indicators at national level at survey time are needed for reasons of comparability. It was also considered necessary that there would be a central location where the data of all participating countries would be stored.
Study Design and Sampling Working Group (SDSWG)
As to the SDSWG, Statistics Canada accepted to take the lead of this working group, which has been mandated to establish clear guidelines on survey design and methodology.
What’s new?
A new group has been created: the Analysis Working Group. NIDI offered to be responsible for the coordination of this Group, and proposed Prof. Jenny Gierveld as Coordinator.
The CB also considered the need to create a working group that could provide guidance to those countries that would like to use their population registers and other administrative records to collect (all or part of) the micro–level data needed to comply with the requirements of the GGP. This group will be the Use of Registers and Administrative Records Working Group.
The CB discussed the arrangements for the Second International Working Group Meeting to take place from 24 to 26 February 2003 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Board decided to have its next meeting during the Second Informal Working Group in Prague.