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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​

  • Although census publicity and advocacy are carried out, there are challenges that may arise and should be anticipated in the design of the publicity and advocacy strategy, such as:

    • Opposition political parties formally pronouncing a boycott of the census leading to resistance and rejection of enumerators in opposition party stronghold areas.

    • Funding challenges, for instance in Sierra Leone the main donor (World Bank) withdrew funding during the main enumeration.

  • Delays in delivery of some publicity materials to the sub-national levels arising from lack of clear guidelines and procedures for carrying out publicity and advocacy at these levels - inappropriate planning. For example, in Kenya, the use of caravans/roadshows was not effective in some areas. The caravans did not cover some parts of the counties and arrived late; therefore, their regular monitoring is important to ensure the effectiveness of the publicity.

  • In Namibia there was a lesson learned on being clear about the different phases of the census - public were concerned that their data had already been collected, not realizing there was listing, then enumeration, then also post-enumeration survey (PES) stages. See more lessons in the pre-enumeration household listing. There was a useful lesson in Namibia where some regional statisticians informed the central meeting that they were in close contact with neighborhood watch schemes and took more time to talk to farmers in their usual data collection. This point was suggested to the other regions.

Some of the challenges faced in dissemination of census products include:

  • Technical obstacles to disseminate census products e.g., websites not optimally functional, no/outdated microdata dissemination platforms, funding constraints, staff shortages, skills constraints (IT, data and metadata management, data anonymisation skills, training in data platform administration); technical skills: microdata archiving skills, knowledge of data anonymisation techniques.

  • Presenting the right data with the right context to meet user’s needs. Accuracy of the data. Ensuring the most recent and most correct data are used and displayed use of ICT and data accessibility, challenges in the use-How best to take advantage of the spatial dimension of census data.