The cancellation of the 2021 National Population and Housing Census, previously postponed and now called off, could have adverse effects on government’s planning and resource allocation.
Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) statistician general Alex Shimuafeni this week announced in a statement that the census, which was billed for August this year, was cancelled “as it is not provided for in the national budget of 2022/2023 due to financial constraints and other critical national priorities”.
With regards to when the census will take place, he said the NSA would keep the nation updated once information is available from the National Planning Commission (NPC), through which the NSA is funded.
Commenting on the cancellation, Lameck Odada, an economics lecturer at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, said government agencies use census data to inform their planning, enforcement and policy decisions.
“The cancellation of the Namibian census, therefore, means that the planning, enforcement and policy decisions will lack the required data for resource distribution.
A census serves as a basis for equitable representation, resource distribution, civil rights protections, housing, education funding and more,” he stated.
Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) lawmaker Mike Kavekotora noted that a census is an important instrument for the demographic set-up. The absence of this assignment would thus create loopholes on service delivery in the country.
“It might also tamper on resource allocation and wealth distribution in the country. Sad that the country cannot carry out such an important assignment.
How many other activities will be cancelled in the near future?” he questioned. The exercise, initially scheduled for 2021, is conducted every decade by the NSA. It was rescheduled for August 2022, but has now been called off due to financial constraints. When asked whether the private sector could come on board, Shimuafeni stated that they had a resource mobilisation conference in February 2020. The main objective of this project is to provide demographic and socio-economic statistical information pertaining to the population and its living quarters, which is necessary for evidence-based planning, decision-making and policymaking. NPC director general Obeth Kandjoze said Namibia is renowned to have a good number of well-crafted policies, with implementation mentioned as the greatest challenge. “We have undertaken a variety of policy reviews that inform the challenge we face. Hence, we believe our greatest challenge is not in policy formulation per se, but is more on devising strategies on how to expand the revenue base, optimise revenue collection and collectively increase our productivity as a nation,” he observed. Covid-19 resulted in an increase in expenditure and a decrease in government revenue.
Therefore, government’s 2022/2023-2024/2025 medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) focused on reducing the budget deficit, stabilising growth in public debt, while supporting economic growth and social development objectives amid prolonged uncertainty, he added. According to the development budget released by the finance ministry last week, activities completed during the 2021/2022 financial year in this respect were the census pilot, census mapping (data collection done and the demarcation of enumeration areas (90% done), and a post-enumeration survey pilot. It further stated that no activities are planned for the first financial year (2022/2023) of this MTEF, while activities planned for subsequent financial years of this MTEF are data processing, data analysis, report writing, development of the sampling frame and dissemination. It further includes census enumeration, the post-enumeration survey, training of field staff, finalising census tools (questionnaire, manuals), and to hire technical assistance to support the census. “Train all census staff for main census data collection, hire vehicles and maintenance of vehicles; conduct the main census data collection; conduct the post- enumeration, hiring of field staff, certification of spatial data and linking of national statistics; and maintenance of the national spatial data inventory,” outlined the development budget statement.