15 Jul 2021

Preparations for Botswana’s 6th population and housing census are reportedly in full swing.

Deputy national census coordinator, Mr Kwenagape Mogotsinyane revealed on Wednesday that the pilot was slated for August while the census proper would be carried out a year later.

Speaking during the handing over of 100 tablets donated by UNFPA to Statistics Botswana, Mr Mogotsinyane said a number of activities such as the cartographic exercise had already been implemented.

Also completed were development of instruments, electronic questionnaires and manuals as well as training of all census and IT officers,  said Mr Mogotsinyana.

He said arrangements for network connectivity to facilitate enumeration and transmission of data to headquarters as well as logistics of packaging and dispatching enumeration equipment and materials to districts were on course.

Mr Mogotsinyana said preparations for observance of COVID-19 protocols at training centres and during enumeration were also on track.

He informed his audience that recruitment of enumerators was nearing completion in the districts while securing of training venues was on schedule.

Thanking UNFPA for the donation, Mr Mogotsinyana said the digital approach would go a long way in improving data quality and shortening time to release census results.

Presenting the gadgets, UNFPA head Ms Mareledi Segotso said the organisation was committed to strengthening national capacity for production and use of census data including for monitoring population dynamics, spatial and social inequality changes in line with Sustainable Development Goals and International Conference on Population and Development.

“New and emerging technology solutions for census provide an opportunity to improve the quality, cost effectiveness and timeliness of the census operations,” she said.

Ms Segotso said national statistics offices needed to make timely, strategic choices about adoption of technology solutions relevant to their context including technical expertise, ICT infrastructure and connectivity.

She said UNFPA’s support towards a successful census had been shaped by priorities such as building on experiences of previous censuses, identifying and sharing intelligence on new census technology solutions and methodologies.

“The other priority shaping our support is the need to advocate for appropriate, efficient and effective technology solutions for census data collection, processing, analysis and dissemination,” she said.

She expressed the hope that the equipment would strengthen Statistics Botswana’s infrastructure and capacity and complement its efforts to modernise census operations.

For his part,  statistician general Dr Burton Mguni said the 2022 cesus would be the first digital  exercise employing technology in data collection and processing.

He said the donated devices would facilitate having real time information thereby keeping pace with ever increasing demand for baseline data and information required to timely inform national agendas such as NDP11 and Vision 2036. Ends