Africa-Press – Liberia. Liberia’s fifth National and Population Census, which was scheduled on March 22, 2022, has been deferred to June 19, 2022, the House’s Chairman on Good Governance and Government Reform has announced. Nimba County Representative and
House’s Chairman on Good Governance and Government Reform, Larry P. Younquoi, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer on Tuesday, said the main reason for the postponement is that the projected “Enumerated Areas” for the March 22 nationwide census are far less than expected.”The March 22 Census is postponed to June 19, and because the deferment is in two months, there might not be any Joint Resolution to effect the postponement,” Rep. Younquoi said.
“We hope the June 19 census will be finally held to reveal the country’s constantly growing population,” Rep. Younquoi asserted. The March 22 postponement will be the fourth deferment since the exercise was initially scheduled to take place in January 2018.
The first four modern censuses were held in 1962, 1974, 1984 and 2008 and revealed how the population had increased differently beginning at 1.1 million, 1.5, 2.1 and 3.5 million respectively.
This round of census, which should have been held in 2018, continues to be postponed in violation of the Constitution, which mandates in Article 39: “The Legislature shall cause a census of the Republic to be undertaken every ten years.“Reports said the causes were untimely and inadequate funding and now, the projected enumerated areas for the Census are far less than what are expected.
It has been gathered that in order to stage a successful census, more than 600 field enumerators should be recruited and some other higher level officers for Quality Control to grapple with the unexpected more enumerated areas.
Meanwhile, the postponement of the March 22 Census is due to the ‘Pre-test and Pilot Census” dubbed as “Mock Census” which was held across the 15 political subdivisions (counties) by the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-information Services (LISGIS).
It may be recalled, Wilmot F. Smith, Jr, the Deputy Director-General for Information & Coordination at LISGIS, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer, indicated that “pre-test and pilot census exercises are a critical part of the census planning process; which provide the opportunity to test all aspects of the census program in advance of the main census activities, thus ensuring the smooth operation and success of the census.”
According to Smith, the purpose of the Pre-test is to “test the adequacy of all the census instruments such as the maps (how correct are they, hope not misleading), test the questionnaire, test the logistics preparation, have an idea of what means of transportation (enumerators would require to reach the nooks and crannies of the country, how many days will be considered adequate for the enumeration and total coverage), public awareness, test receptivity and buy-in of our stakeholders (the public).”
“The conduct of Pre-test is aimed at testing the census methodology, the questionnaires, data collection methods, the manual for field staff, instruction manuals, data editing and coding, data processing and tabulation in preparation for the actual census,” Mr. Smith emphasized.Mr. Smith stressed that the census Pre-test exercise is usually conducted before the completion of the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) exercise and that the Pre-test is not the actual census but the mirror through which we look at our readiness for the next census.
“All information volunteered will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and will not be divulged for any other purpose,” the LISGIS Deputy Director General indicated.
“It will be a 100% digital census with Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) methodology for the de-facto enumeration. Data will be transmitted to the CSWeb platform resident in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
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