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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​

Digital transformation is not without its significant challenges, which range from infrastructural deficits to a lack of technical expertise.

  • Development of census products is an integral part of the entire census process, failure in one step affects the other (see the case of Eswatini).

  • Dissemination of census reports by various means helps to increase the awareness and use of census results hence increase the value of money used to implement the population census

  • Financial constraint: included among others:

  1. financial resources being inadequate and unpredictable,
  2. withdrawal and reprogramming of approved resources leading to scaling down and making budget adjustments,
  3. difficultly to plan based on pledges and unstable resources disbursement plan. Some countries still lacked funding for more dissemination workshops such as university students who will utilise the census data for in-depth analysis as well as businesspeople for investing area etc.

  • Staffing issues: Understaffing and high vacancy rates at the NSO leads to overlap of personnel duties. Limited technical expertise to develop offline dissemination products and effectively anonymise microdata data.

  • Effect of COVID-19: the preventive measures derailed and affected implementation of some planned activities for countries that were already undertaking the census, such as Malawi.

  • Online dissemination: Countries were challenged with the high cost and unstable internet connections due to poor network. The use of unlicensed applications to avoid costs caused interruptions such as Zoom meetings were often hacked into. It is noted that the speed, volume and reach of today’s digital information flows are also creating conditions for misinformation, fake news, and false ‘evidence’ to thrive.

  • Non acceptance of census results: some stakeholders may refuse to accept the released results for various reasons as was the case for the 2019 KPHC data.

  • Failure to use simple language to explain concepts: In Zimbabwe, users had problems in understanding concepts and definitions in the functioning, housing characteristics and labour force modules. Journalists had problems in interpreting and reporting on the maternal mortality ratio as well as life expectancy at birth. This was also coupled with failure to interpret census results in local languages.

  • Mozambique appreciated that CAPI enabled the office to receive timely data thus making the production of census products more efficient than in previous censuses; for the office to use CAPI to its fullest advantage, the application had to run as smooth as possible; but because the data collection process was not 100% perfect, this resulted in the data processing unit taking longer to clean the data for use in analysis. This resulted in the launch of the thematic reports to be delayed by a couple of years.

  • Disseminating through stakeholder workshops was the most effective way however, they are expensive as these workshops take place in hotels, lodges, and community halls where refreshments must be provided. Government does provide a budget which then needs to be supplemented by other development partners; availability of technical assistance to support the preparation of census products is key. This is necessary for strengthening the capacity of the NSO and local skills in general.

  • Other challenges existed such as unstable government internet, insufficient funding for dissemination workshops, insufficient analytical skills for specialised themes such mortality, fertility, and migration.

Some of the limitations for proper archiving of census materials and products include:

  • Legal obstacles - there may be no sufficient policy framework in place to guide in archiving of the census records and materials.

  • Technical capacity obstacles may include lack of in-house capacity to handle complex aspects such as data anonymisation and curation of microdata to ensure its long-term availability. Lack of training in creating metadata records for microdata. Lack of capacity to administer existing microdata dissemination platforms and limited microdata archiving skills.

  • Technological challenges, for instance lack of adequate computers, lack of a functional website or outdated website or websites that are not optimally functional. Nonexistence and outdated microdata dissemination platforms. This is coupled with the rapid pace of technology and the fast-changing nature of electronic data storage media present a challenge to the preservation of information over a long period of time. With the rapid change of technology, migration of archival systems to modern ones is inevitable. This calls for digital migration to improve cost effectiveness, avoid media decal and adhere to new user requirements.

  • Inadequate financial resources to support the process of undertaking documentation of microdata files, to meet the costs of creating access tools and safeguards, and of supporting authorisation enquiries made by the research community, helping data users of microdata files to navigate complex file structures and variable definitions.

  • Limited budget allocation to archiving - government and donor expenditure is allocated mainly for data collection, and very little funding is provided for the long-term preservation, archiving of census records, and sharing of micro-data.