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Experiences and Lessons▶
1. Project Planning and Management2. Geospatial Mapping and EA Database3. Enumeration Instruments and Tools4. Data Capture and Management5. Census Testing and Pilots6. Recruitment and Training7. Deployment and Supervision8. Enumeration and Logistics9. Quality Assurance and Risk Management10. Census Analysis and Products11. Partnerships and Collaboration12. Advocacy and Publicity13. Procurement and Financial Management14. Post-Enumeration Survey15. Alternative Approaches16. Planning Checklist
Case Studies▶
1. Project Planning and Management2. Geospatial Mapping3. Enumeration Instruments4. Data Capture5. Census Testing6. Recruitment and Training7. Deployment and Supervision8. Enumeration and Logistics9. Quality Assurance10. Census Analysis11. Partnerships12. Advocacy13. Procurement14. Post-Enumeration Survey15. Alternative Approaches16. Planning Checklist
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Challenges and lessons learnt​

  • In Botswana’s pilot census, a challenge arose with google forms during assessment if the internet connection is poor/cut in some instances the test would reload leading to loss of the recorded answers, forcing applicants to start the assessment all over again. This posed a serious challenge for areas with poor internet connection.

  • The manual recruitment process for the census enumeration requires a lot of time and therefore it needs to be planned to start as early as possible and allocated adequate resources to ensure that the recruitment process is completed in time, preferably online.

  • In Namibia, during the pilot the e-recruitment system was unable to handle the large volume of applications. This demonstrates the value of carrying out a pilot and also the necessity to stress-test the recruitment system assuming that there will be peaks of traffic just before application deadlines.

  • In Tanzania, one of the main challenges was the limited internet access in rural areas. This restricted some potential applicants from easily assessing and using the system. Some applicants also faced difficulties in navigating the application system due to a lack of familiarity with digital platforms. This highlighted the need for user support and training. High volumes of traffic, especially near application deadlines sometimes caused the system to slowdown or crash, emphasizing the importance of robust server capacity and load balancing.

  • Some countries trained their field staff online using Zoom. This posed challenges like divided attention, those attending training from home would sometimes do other tasks at the same time or would not give their full attention to the training. Sometimes, they would even delegate attendance to others. This, at the end of the day, compromises the quality of data. However, steps can be taken to ensure that people give their attention to the online training, such as requiring people to take and pass assessment tests based on the material – possibly at in-person sessions once basic online training has been completed.

  • In Namibia, the high recruitment criteria (Grade 12) resulted in many new trainees with limited experience in data collection (census/surveys). Thus, additional time was required for field practice during training. There is also likely to have been more attrition of staff since people in this category are typically seeking permanent jobs.

  • Challenges in ensuring IT literacy among enumerators include varying levels of digital literacy in the population, and difficulties in recruiting individuals with the necessary IT skills. These challenges can be mitigated by using targeted recruitment campaigns, providing incentives for IT-skilled applicants, and creating accessible and effective training programs. For example, Burkina Faso faced challenges recruiting in areas with security concerns and as a result had to lower recruitment criteria, potentially impacting the IT literacy of enumerators. This highlights the need to balance security concerns with the need for qualified personnel.

  • Internet connection was a challenge during training for some of the training centres due to network problems where certain training centres were located.

  • It is desirable to utilise free training venues but there is limited availability of public facilities for training in some parts of countries in Africa, and these should be properly planned and budgeted for.

  • Data quality issues have been caused by inadequate training and enumerators not understanding the purpose of the data they are collecting. For example enumerators not using standard values to record “unknown” causing data cleaning issues, enumerators adding a new record rather than editing an existing record to correct a mistake, causing duplication etc. (see also PES enumerator recruitment and training). This makes matching the data to other datasets, including the post-enumeration survey and administrative datasets more challenging and therefore limits potential further use of the data.