Resident enumerators for April census

TENDAI BHEBE     IN BULAWAYO 

The Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) says it will recruit enumerators who live in the survey areas in the housing and population census to be held next month.

The national population and housing census  will be held from April 21 to 30, 2022, whose data will inform the country’s policy direction.

More than 50 000 enumerators will be recruited for the exercise.

ZIMSTAT director,  Fadzai Ndlovu, said using resident enumerators was cost effective, increases flexibility and  builds trust between enumerators and respondents.

The resident enumerators are also familiar with their surroundings and the culture.

“It is important that the enumerator resides in the area. We need enumerators who reside in the same locality where they are going to conduct the census because they know the culture of the locality.

“And also they are able to most likely use the local language which makes interviewing easy because they understand the community they are working in,” Ndlovu said, adding that enumerators need to be tech savvy.

“An enumerator who shall go out to collect our data needs to be tech savvy in order for them to operate the tablet and the system installed on the tablet properly.”

She said  the enumerators also need to be physically fit as the exercise walking around enumeration areas.

For the first time, the census will be conducted using  computer assisted personal interviewing.

Zimbabwe will also for the first time conduct a census in April as previously censuses were held in August.

Last year, ZIMSTAT conducted a census mapping exercise which projected the population to be now at 16.9m.

These include 8.8m females and 8.1m males.

The last census was in 2012 . The population stood at 13 061 239.  Of these, 6 780 700  were females and 6 280 539  were males.