MUTARE-The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has kickstarted field mapping and household listing exercise across the country as it gears for a population census, set to be rolled out in August.
By Donald Nyarota
The field mapping exercise for the 2021 Population and Housing census also sets the base for a delimitation exercise of electoral constituencies by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Initially the Field mapping and listing of households was scheduled to start in March last year but was disturbed by the Covid-19 national lockdown restrictions and reports are that work has after the statistics agency was declared an essential service.
In a statement, ZimStat director-general, Taguma Mahonde implored citizens to cooperate with enumerators saying the exercise was critical in setting in motion the population census that will begin in earnest in August.
“The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency would like to advise members of the public that the institution is currently undertaking a field mapping and household listing exercise across the country in preparation of the 2021 Population and Housing census.
“The exercise aims to subdivide the country into unique enumeration areas from which enumerators will be assigned to work from during the actual census count in August 2021.
“It will provide information on the population size, its geographical location housing stock and the sampling frame, in advance of the census enumeration. The information we are collecting is confidential and will be used for statistical purposes,” he said.
In the filed mapping exercise ZimStat enumerators will collect confidential information on the name of head of household, number of persons in the household, number of female and male, agriculture status of the household, home address and contact address.
Meanwhile a multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS) for Manicaland province is progressing, after it started in January 5, and has been rolled Zimunya-Marange and Mutasa districts, with the agency revealing that results will be released earlier.
ZimStat MICS coordinator Handrick Chigiji in a press briefing said they have made investments to improve data capturing technology and they anticipate to produce the final report earlier than previous years.
He said the MICS for 2019 survey will be based on a sample of households, representative at provincial and district levels across the province.
“The system which we are using will cut time on data capturing, hence it will enable the report to be produced in a short space of time as compared to the previous years when we used to take nine months to come up with a final report.
“So far we are in Zimunya-Marange and Mutasa districts,” he said. “We will soon spread into the whole province. People are giving us enough data and responding well to our questionnaires.”
MICS is an international household survey programme developed and supported by UNICEF survey, focuses on socio-economic data on health, education, child protection, water and sanitation, HIV/Aids and human capital and well-being.
He said enumerators will carry with them identity cards for easy identification and will take all precautionary measures against Covid-19.
Government has set aside ZWL$4,4 billion for ZimStat to carry out its activities including the 2021 population census, which will culminate in the delimitation of 210 electoral constituencies to be used in the 2023 general elections.
The Census and Statistics Act, passed by Parliament last year, seeks to align the taking of decennial, national census in a manner that takes into account census data and according to the Act the process should have been completed by August instead of 2022, which has been the period within which it should have been carried out decennially.
ZEC will delimitate seats for 2023 presidential, parliamentary and local authority in respect of population distribution premised on latest census data, with constituencies expected to be equal size in provincial and district boundaries.
