UN Banner
HomeAboutExperiences and LessonsCase StudiesRecommendationsResourcesChecklist
Home
About▶
BackgroundPurposeRationaleStructureTarget Audience
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
Recommendations
Resources
Checklist
Skip to main content

Challenges and lessons learnt​

The development of census proposals and program documents in Africa during the 2020 round was a formidable task.

  • The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 posed a key challenge for census proposal development including the need to re-evaluate and redesign enumeration strategies. The pandemic led to a diversion of both government and donor funding towards emergency health responses, creating immense uncertainty for census planners and making it difficult to secure the financial commitments necessary for a credible proposal. Securing adequate and timely funding was a major obstacle in developing census proposals in Africa.
  • The digital transition introduced a new set of challenges that needed to be addressed in the proposal phase such as the need for a thorough assessment of the country's technological infrastructure and technical capacity, the proposal had to include a robust procurement plan and a realistic timeline as well as developing a comprehensive training plan for many field staff among others. This was made worse by the lack of adequate in-house expertise in some NSOs, which meant that proposals often had to include provisions for external technical assistance.
  • Political instability and insecurity posed a significant threat to the successful execution of a census. For census planners in these regions, developing a proposal meant navigating a highly unpredictable environment to address challenges such as ensuring the safety of census personnel and respondents in conflict-affected areas, developing strategies to enumerate displaced populations and those in hard-to-reach areas, and gain the trust and cooperation of all segments of the population.

The budgeting process also faced challenges such as:

  • The prevailing financial constraint directly impacted census proposal development as planners often had to develop multiple budget scenarios based on different levels of potential government and donor funding, adding complexity to the proposal. Engaged in extensive and often lengthy advocacy. Extensive and lengthy advocacy meetings with potential donors were required.
  • Given that a digital census requires multiple testing of the technological requirements, some countries did not factor these tests into their budgets and plans early enough. They only realised the need for additional tests after or before implementing the pilot census. This introduced budgetary constraints due to unplanned costs.
  • In Tanzania, the decision of combining three national undertakings (PHC, Building Census and National Physical addressing) reduced the government budget of conducting each exercise separately.

Some of the observed challenges and lessons learned in the establishment of implementation committees include:

  • Inconsistency in attendance of committee meetings with some key stakeholders sending different representatives to attend committee meetings. This resulted in inconsistent and limited contributions.
  • Some key stakeholders failed to attend the meetings and only appeared when it was too late and long after implementation had started. This challenged the committee’s ability to track and follow-up on the deliberations.
  • In some cases, there was insufficient capacity and number of staff in the implementing agency, resulting in late inauguration of census committees hence failure to secure adequate representation.
  • Some sub national committees were not uniformly represented, which affected implementation modalities and disadvantaged some sub national administrative units.
  • Conflict of interest among committee members due to their varied self- interests especially at the sub national level, which negatively impacted on census activities like recruitment and procurement. Kenya faced this at the sub national level.