The 2020 Census main count will be conducted this year.
Hello Papua New Guinea! Welcome back to our weekly update on the activities of the National Statistical Office and the 2020 National Population and Housing Census.
As I mentioned earlier, 2020 is the census year and the country will conduct its next round of population count and will take about a week. The main objective of the 2020 Census is to do a complete count of every person in PNG, both citizens and non-citizens, at a point in time.
NSO as part of its preparation for the main census count, the Census Project has engaged in many activities. One of the major activities in the preparatory phase was the Pilot Census.
The main objective of the Pilot Census was to test all aspects of conducting the actual census enumeration including testing of logistics, time spent on interviewing, any existence of respondent and interviewer burden, security, accommodation, training, data quality checks, and so on. It is also called a dress rehearsal of what is expected during the actual census enumeration.
The Pilot Census was conducted in 12 Census Units in eight provinces, Western, Central, National Capital District, Western Highlands, Morobe, West Sepik, New Ireland and West New Britain. A total of 50 households were interviewed.
From the observations of the Pilot Census, the 2020 Census Management Team made some recommendations to the National Census Steering Committee through the Census Users Advisory sub-committee to review some sections of the questionnaire including the Interviewer Manual. Both will be reviewed and undertake a small test to test and finalize the revised questionnaire and the interviewer manual for the National Census Steering Committee to endorse. The approved and final versions will then go for printing and used in the actual census count.
In the meantime, and on brighter note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARO), Morobe, East New Britain and West New Britain for signing a Memorandum of Agreement with NSO to co-share the cost of conducting the population census in their respective provinces. Shortly, similar MOAs will be signed with provinces in the Eastern end of highlands, Western Highlands, Jiwaka, Simbu and Eastern Highlands.
With the limited resources NSO has at its disposal, it appreciates the support which these provinces are extending. NSO anticipates the same kind of support from all provincial governments as the provinces will take ownership of the population data to serve their development needs such as for development planning, decision making, effective resource allocation (budget), evidence-based governance, and monitoring & evaluation on their development plans, policies, annual budgetary allocations and such other development aspirations. The NSO will only maintain the population and other socio-economic data as the mandated custodian.
Next week we will tell you about why we (NSO) are signing cost-sharing MOAs with the provinces.
Thank you for following our column for public knowledge and awareness purposes.
Until then, that is all for now.