The Anloga District as part of its preparations towards Ghana’s 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) exercise organized an event dubbed “30-Day Countdown to Census Night” to commemorate its preparedness. The event was launched at a stakeholder forum on Friday, May 28th, 2021 at the District Assembly Hall. The event offered an opportunity to stakeholders to deliberate, and re-emphasize the need for full participation of all Ghanaians in the 2021 Census.
The 30-days to the census night launch is a critical landmark to energize Ghana’s preparation towards its third Population and Housing Census (PHC) with data collection scheduled to occur in the second quarter of 2021. The 2021 PHC will be Ghana’s first digital Population and Housing Census. The PHC will provide updated demographic, socio-economic and housing data to support development and decision-making as well as the tracking of global, regional, and national development goals. The conduct of this census is huge and complex therefore needs strategic partnerships to be implemented successfully. In view of this, the 30-days to the census night launch is organized across the country to ensure the strategy of implementing publicity, education and advocacy campaign in the lead up to the census and sensitize the public on the census and elicit their support for the exercise.
The programme draws about seventy (70) participants from the District, including; the District Chief Executive, District Coordinating Council, Assembly men and women, Religious leaders, Chiefs, Queen mothers, Opinion leaders, Representatives from youth groups, Representatives from women’s groups, Representatives from CSOs/NGOs/DPs (local programmes), Representatives from private sector, Media (local radio and TV stations, community radio, fork media groups or associations), Grassroots associations (kente weavers), Local chapter of teachers union, Local political party leadership among others.
The Deputy Director in his opening address welcomed all participants to the programme and outlined the importance of Census in the District. Mr. Obed Dzamboe-Attey, in his remarks, said Ghana had been legitimately consistent in conducting census every 10 years since 1960 to count and understand its population size, structure and dynamics.
He noted that the creation of districts, constituencies and regions by successive governments was based mainly on census data, where he further stated that as we were all aware our district (Anloga District Assembly) was created and we need such information to achieve our future development goal.
“It is therefore reassuring that the census will collect information on every structure, household and individual, thereby providing reliable and disaggregated data to lowest levels of administration and geography, including rural and urban disparity,” Mr. Obed Dzamboe-Attey noted.
In his keynote address, the District Chief Executive Hon. Seth Yormewu indicated that many activities have been undertaken in preparedness of the District towards the census not to mention the Inauguration of District Census Implementation Committee (DCIC) members last year and subsequent preparatory activities which the DCO and DCD has been briefing him constantly about. Census Officials have been competitively recruited and screened and would be undergoing comprehensive and skillful training to prepare them for the upcoming exercise.
Hon. Seth Yormewu who graced the occasion with slogan “You Count, Be Counted”, also reiterated that this year’s census data is so dear to the heart of this Government and he promised supporting this very important exercise to the best of his capacity, because it will go a long way to sustain the further development plans of Anloga District, Volta Region and Ghana as a whole. He also, noted that such quality data were critically needed by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for the purpose of tracking progress in particular efforts targeted at eliminating poverty and all forms of inequalities in the districts.
According to him, information on population growth dynamics was important and highly needed by MMDAs in planning for education needs, where to locate health facilities, how to allocate social expenditures and identify those who really need help in the society.
The Hon. DCE thus called on all Ghanaians and especially people in the District to welcome Census Officials into their communities and provide the necessary information for their enumeration. He reminded the stakeholders that information provided to the Census Officials is strictly confidential as it will be handled only by persons who have taken the “Oath of Secrecy” as spelt out in the Statistical Service Act 2019 (Act 1003).
he District Census Officer (DCO), Mr. Simon Whoknows Tunu took participants through the census process and some key upcoming activities. He stressed that the main goal of the Census is to achieve complete coverage. This dovetails in the “leave no one behind” agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. Key upcoming activities according to him include the training of enumerators and supervisors starting Monday, 31st May, 2021 to Wednesday, 9th June, 2021, listing of structures begins from 13th June, Census Night is 27th June and enumeration of households and institutions would begin on 28th June through to 11th July, 2021 covering a fourteen-day duration.
The DCO stated that the GSS is ready for the conduct of the 2021 PHC. The theme for the 2021 PHC according to the DCO is”You Count, Get Counted”.
He concluded by reiterating the appreciation of the entire Census operational team and humbly request for their sustained engagement and support, particularly in offering ambassadorial services for the Census process.
In a nutshell, the programme was successful, educative and well cherished by the participants who expressed their willingness to work with census officials to continue to prepare the public to be ready to be counted appropriately through several Publicity, Education and Advocacy (PEA) activities using all media.