Statistics Sierra Leone (Stats-SL) has on Thursday September 3, 2020, engaged its Advisory Committee, comprising high level representatives from different institutions and political parties, in a bid to elicit their general knowledge and advice on the conduct of the 2020 Mid Term Population and Housing Census (MTPHC).
The Advisory Committee will advise the Technical Committee and guide it on technical issues of the midterm census. As part of their terms of reference members of the Advisory Committee would also be responsible for the formulation of policies to steer how the census would be conducted. They would also advise the secretariat setup by Stats-SL.
During the engagement the Statistician General, Professor Osman Sankoh said that stats-SL make sure it coordinates, collect, compile, analyze and disseminate high quality and objective data which would be use to assist informed decision making within government, businesses and media, and the wider national and international community.
He cited that the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey in 2018 (MICS), Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey in 2018 (SLIHS) and the Demographic and Health Survey in 2019 (DHS) are all key indicator that would enable the conduct of the MTPHC
Professor Sankoh mentioned that the use of electronic tablets during the midterm census would enhance efficient data collection in which Global Positioning System (GPS) would indicate the areas in which data had been collected and would also help to monitor enumerators on the field.
“After a specific data had been collected by an enumerator, the data would be sent directly from the field to a server at stats-SL headquarters in Freetown,” Prof. Sankoh said.
National Census Coordinator, Abdulai Salia Brima further informed that they would provide electronic questionnaires that would be uploaded into the electronic tabs. He added that enumerator would be supervised and monitored while on the field to ensure effectiveness of the survey Mid Term Population and Housing Census.
Giving an update about the progress made thus far, Brima said that locality verification had been done nationwide with the help of Paramount and Section Chiefs who provided data on the number of villages within their locality.
By George M.O. Williams
08/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7904