Census Is Theme of 2005 African Statistics Day
By Cristina Muller, Communication Officer, ECA
14 November, 2005

Statisticians from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) are joining their partners from statistics bureaus throughout Africa, sub regional, regional, and international organizations to celebrate African Statistics Day, on 18 November.

This year, African Statistics Day is dedicated to the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses and related activities. The title of the Round – a census programme that involves five continents and hundreds of statistics bureaus worldwide - refers to the decade; it began in 2005 and ends in 2014.

“A population and housing census is one of the most important statistical operations undertaken by governments,” said economist Augustin Fosu, the director of the ECA’s Economic and Social Policy Division.

“Census information is needed by governments for a broad variety of purposes such as planning for schools, roads and hospitals, and essential development programmes,” he said.

The census takes stock of the human resources of countries – their most important asset. It describes people according to their education, literacy, and employment status and living conditions. It points out their need for education, health, housing and transportation services.

Government decisions about where to place health care centres, schools, transportation service such as buses, where to build new roads, are based on population and housing counts.

“Compiling and disseminating statistics has been particularly challenging in Africa, since it requires both skilled personnel and resources, as well as coordination between local, provincial, and national administrations on one hand, and national, sub regional, regional, and international stakeholders, on the other hand” said Dimitri Sanga, the chief of ECA’s statistics unit.

“For years, many African countries did not engage in comprehensive statistics compilation because of civil unrest, or poor economic performance, and this is about to change,” he said.

Initiatives such as the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the Millennium Development Goals, and the Poverty Reduction Strategies for example, call for the efficient use of existing resources to propel the continent’s development.

“For this reason, the census and its related activities is increasingly important,” said Sanga.
An important feature of a census is its comprehensive coverage. The population and housing census attempts to enumerate each person and house and their characteristics, a costly and complex exercise.

Most censuses are planned over a period of 3-5 years, prior to implementation. To undertake the census, a government has to construct detailed maps, locating all the villages, dwellings and households of a country. It has to hire thousands of people called enumerators, to undertake interviews that will result in a map of the identity of a country.

Another major challenge is that the census is based on public trust. To gain public trust, official statistics must respect principles of confidentiality and impartiality.

To ensure their validity and reliability, official statistics must honour the entitlement of citizens to public information, and use scientific principles and professional ethics on procedures.

Of the 230 countries and areas in the world that report to the United Nations Demographic Yearbook, a total of 194 have conducted a population and housing census since 1995.

Eighty nine per cent of the world’s population resides in a country that has conducted a census since 1995. In Africa, only 52 per cent of the population resides in a country that has conducted a census, compared with 99 per cent of Europeans, and 95 per cent of Asians.

“This means that for the remaining 48 per cent of the African population, their characteristics, as well as their needs are not precise. The critical question is - what are we in Africa basing our development effort on, if we do not know how many and who we are addressing,” said Sanga.

As part of the World Programme on Statistics, led by the United Nations, ECA has the mandate to lead Africa’s statistics community in a comprehensive capacity building race to improve the continent’s performance, guiding the continent to a more informed and realistic road to development.

In this regard, the UN created a programme to coordinate the preparation and implementation of the 2010 World Programme of Population and Housing Censuses. This programme has the following goals:

• Conducting at least one population and housing census in every country/area in the period 2005-2014;
• Producing an updated version of the United Nations Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses;
• Providing a platform for comprehensive exchange of experiences, countries’ participation, technical assistance, information and data dissemination.

It is UNECA’s role, as a regional organization, to take part in every aspect of the implementation of these goals. To do so, the Commission has synthesized a series of key issues and challenges faced by African countries during the last round of censuses, as well as potential new challenges for the forthcoming 2010 round. Moreover, it is involved in the revision of the principles and recommendations guiding the entire 2010 round of censuses.

The 2010 world programme of population and housing censuses is an opportunity to improve statistical information for monitoring Africa’s development agenda.