Don't pass hasty judgement on quality of Census - Benneh

Accra, April 20, GNA - Professor George Benneh, Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee of the National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) on Wednesday, urged Ghanaians to be cautious about their criticisms of the quality of the exercise.

He explained that the success rate of the NPHC could be accurately determined when the exercise is completed and evaluated. Prof. Benneh, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, said though there were a few hitches at the start of the exercise most areas have been enumerated and the rest would be covered during the mopping up, which is a common feature in such exercises.

He was reacting to comments made by the main speaker at seminar on "Achieving and managing a demographic transition in a changing economy". The seminar is the 14th of the Millennium Series organised by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) in Accra.

Dr John Kwasi Anarfi, a researcher in population, in his comprehensive paper, which covered issues such as population history, quality of life, poverty, statistics for planning, family planning and industrialisation, criticised the manner in which NPHC was conducted.

"We have gone through an exercise which is a far cry of the one we had 40 years ago. The census is supposed to have ended, but there are many,including my household and myself, who have not been counted. The essence of timeliness of population data in our national endeavours became clear in 1992 and 1996 when we could not come to terms with the figures in the register, which we used for our last two elections.

"As someone with special interest in population, I must confess that I am not happy with the way the preparations of the just-ended census was handled. Many important things started a little too late. Why the nation chose to let the propaganda for the census to coincide with that of the opening of the voters' register still beats my imagination", said Dr Anarfi.

But Prof. Benneh, who also chaired the seminar, expressed confidence in the competence of the technical advisory committee to ensure that all the major aspects of the census are covered, saying most of the members participated in the successful 1960 census, which was lauded internationally.

He said the fact that people were complaining in the media that they had not been counted showed the level of awareness and appreciation of the need for a good census.

"We should be glad that at this time of pressing economic constraints, funds have been allocated for conducting the census which is very important but expensive."

Prof. Benneh, however, commended Dr Anarfi for his well-researched and thought provoking paper, which called on the government to translate its commitment to achieving balanced population and economic growth into concrete action.

Dr Anarfi also called for measures to improve on the registration of births and deaths throughout the country to give accurate population data and a review in population information, the provision of incentives and health and economic facilities that would motivate people to change their behaviour.

"A good vital registration system of national coverage can give us an accurate picture of the population of the country at any point in time. But so far, there are centres only in cities and towns.

"Now that there are political divisions up to the ward levels, it should not be too difficult to achieve a national coverage in our vital registration". He noted that though the fertility rate of the country had declined from 6.4 children per woman in 1988 to 4.6 in 1998, the use of family planning methods to control births remains low and called for a more radical but dynamic approach to educate people to appreciate the need to have the number of children they can adequately cater for.

"Ghana was among the first sub-Saharan African countries, which initiated family planning as a means of checking population growth. But with over three decades of family planning programmes,just a little more than 20 per cent of married women use family planning. Nearly half of the proportion use the so-called traditional methods, mainly abstinence and withdrawal.

"That means that in effect, the proportion of Ghanaian women currently seriously using family planning is just more than 10 per cent. At the same time the proportion of married women with unmet need for family planning stands at 33 per cent, compared to six per cent in Mauritius."

Dr Anarfi said he believed that some women were using herbal preparations to either prevent or terminate pregnancies and advocated a research into the use of such preparations.

He answered questions about the effect of HIV/AIDS on population growth, which he said would reduce the life expectancy rate drastically, the impact of industrialisation and high income levels on population growth and the link between poverty and high population growth.