By Nyasha Mutena.
Zimbabwe. (News of The South) – Zimbabwe is working relentlessly on gathering data required to ascertain the country’s population in 2022.
Speaking on this occasion of the dissemination of the updated 2012 Population Census Projections on the 7th of November 2019, UNFPA Country Representative, Dr Esther Muia applauded Zimstat on making projections for the census at district level saying they were prepared in a participatory manner.
“I understand that for the first time, the projections have been made at the district level where, arguably data begins to have a human face.
I am also pleased to note that the projections were prepared in a participatory manner where all stakeholders were given an opportunity to provide inputs into the projection assumptions, which, as you know, are critical in determining the overall results,” said Dr Muia.
Dr Muia said at the core of the UNFPA’s mandate is the need to ensure that reliable and timely data is available to inform formulation, planning, implementation and monitoring of interventions to support countries in using population data for formulation of development policies and programmes
“The importance of statistics cannot be over-emphasized. They are a vital tool for economic and social development planning. The updated 2012 Population Projections report is coming at a time when we are preparing for a number of important national development processes such as the next National Development Plan (2021 – 2025); evaluation of the current ZUNDAF and preparation of its successor; as well as the preparation of the first Sustainable Development Goals progress report for the country,” Dr Muia said.
She went on to say as equally important as the provision of data, is its utilization saying the ultimate success of any information system should be measured by informed decisions, which lead to action and positive change in the system rather than the quantity or quality of data produced.
“Our challenge, therefore, ladies and gentlemen, is to promote a culture of data utilization by making information more relevant for action.
“It is my belief that in line with UNFPA’s mandate, these key findings will be utilized for policies and programmes to reduce poverty, harness the demographic dividend and ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect,” said Dr Muia.
Dr Esther Muia
She implored Zimstat to bring politicians on board so that they can understand how to use numbers for development. She highlighted that to make services available there is need to know who and where to access the people.
Nyari Ngonyama, a representative from Zimstat said currently they have inadequate staff but however stressed that the budget for the 2022 census is USD85 million.
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include traditional culture, business, supplies, and traffic censuses.
The United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as “individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity”, and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every ten years. United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international practices.
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