Census will meet international standards

Ho, Oct. 2, GNA - The Statistical Service says the 2010 Population and Housing Census would pass all international standards of credibility, reliability and acceptance.

Mr Francis Yankey of the Ghana Statistical Service said this at a capacity building workshop for reporters and stringers of the Ghana News Agency in the 40 operational districts of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

It was the outcome of collaboration among the UNFPA the GNA and the Media and Communications Advocacy Network (MCAN) grouping media practitioners with interest in population and development issues. Mr Yankey said to achieve the high standards required of the census the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) began its preparations early by establishing mechanisms and machinery as prescribed for internationally accepted population censuses.

The preparations were classified into pre-census, census and post census activities all of which involved detailed technical work. Some of the pre-census activities involved the preparation of questionnaires taking into consideration the Ghanaian experience and experiences from other parts of the world and clarity of questions. The whole country would also be demarcated into uniquely different Enumeration Areas (EAs).

Included in the pre-census preparations would be the pilot census in six districts to test the adequacy of the entire census programme, quality of demarcation exercise, enumerator workload in each EA, test for instruments, concepts and assumptions.

Also to be tested would be adequacy of training and publicity, field operation measures, quality control measures, security measures and data capture, validation and tabulation plans.

Mr Yankey said an independent committee would be constituted after the census to scrutinize the outcomes to ensure that they met acceptable international standards.

He said stringent and detailed quality control measures were taken bearing in mind the fact that, "the success or reliability of a census is determined by users who must be convinced that effective quality control measures were adopted during the census process".