The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) is preparing for the 2022 national population and housing census by running a trial between November 18th and the 27th. News of this pilot run was announced by ZimStat Director-General, Taguma Mahonde at an event held in Kwekwe yesterday.
Pilot census is meant to position us for the 2022 population and house census. Ideally, we could have held it under the same conditions, that is we could have conducted it in April as the norm. However, we are holding it in November so that we test our logistical, and general preparedness to conduct the enumeration using the new method come 2022.”
Taguma Mahonde, ZimStat Director-General (via The Herald)
ZimStat is doing away with paper and instead, option got tablets. The govt agency will also be designing a tablet questionnaire as they prepare for the census. All of these systems will be going through the same trial phase before going into the field.
Switching to digital has its advantages, chief among them is reducing the time it takes to capture and collate the data. The process would, according to Taguma Mahonde, take up to 24 months for the first wave of results to come out.
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency has also benefitted from a budget increase from the Ministry of finance. It got an additional ZWL$9 million from the 87 million that was usually allocated to it. This new influx of funds is said to make sure (in part) that ZimStat personal have PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) as they make their rounds.
