BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStats) has embarked on roadshows in Bulawayo as it intensifies information dissemination on the national census scheduled for April 21 to 30.
Yesterday, ZimStats held an awareness campaign in Cowdray Park.
“We are currently conducting roadshows throughout the country in all provinces as part of census publicity,” ZimStats spokesperson Mercy Chideme Chideme said.
“For this census, we are counting people who will be within our borders on April 21 and 30 that is our reference point for the reference night. We are distributing pamphlets and educating citizens on why they need to co-operate during the census.”
Chideme said it was critical for citizens to participate in the census as the information derived from the population count would be crucial for the formulation of policies and budgets by government.
“The government and researchers use those statistics and they help in the development of the country. We do not want to miss anyone, that is why we are doing sensitisation programmes on the census,” she said.
“We also want to avoid over-and under-counting, that is why we are emphasising on the census night. People are aware of the census but most of them think it is about counting the number of heads per household. There are more issues that are looked at which need to be explained through education. Enumerators will be asking people about their educational level, employment status, housing characteristics, and the type of building materials they use, the type of amenities such as water they use and other indicators.”
Chideme said the census would also be used to determine the death rate in the country, and to estimate the number of immigrants that are in the diaspora, hence the need to educate people on the census.
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