The Namibia Statistics Agency is commencing with the census mapping exercise, which was put on hold end of March 2020 due to Covid-19. It commences today and will run until mid-December 2020. The census mapping exercise, in simple terms, is a census of built up infrastructure in the country. What the NSA literally does is take satellite pictures of the entire country, identifies all built up structures through office digitisation, and then goes on the ground to verify each and every built-up structure. This allows the NSA to generate various databases of built up structures in the country such as houses, clinics, schools etc. It not only provides information necessary for socio-economic development, but also serves as a basis for a successful 2021 census. 
Population and Housing Censuses take place after every ten years. Namibia has held three censuses since independence and the 2021 one will be the fourth one. Unlike the perception that a census only counts the population, it actually is one of the most complete statistical exercises that statistical agencies conduct. It has demographic, economic and social indicators, and considering the huge costs involved in it, has a timeline of ten years. This of course does not mean that census statistics become obsolete after the count. Indeed, in between censuses there are inter-census surveys that also serve as preparations for actual censuses and statistics provision. 
The current census mapping exercise takes place under the global health challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. This of course requires the NSA to adhere all measures put in place to prevent Covid-19. To that regards the NSA collaborated with the Minister of Health to train and educate our enumerators on how best to go about their work in compliance with these Covid-19 regulations. The NSA has therefore ensured that all its enumerators will be wearing face masks, be consistently sanitized and practice social distancing whilst collecting information. All field staff with Flu-like-symptoms will be encouraged to visit the nearest health facility and not be allowed to participate in the interviews in order to ensure that we prevent Covid-19 during this exercise. The whole mapping and interview session will take between 5 – 10 minutes per household. 
It is against that background that the Namibia Statistics Agency encourages the entire country and population to indeed participate in this exercise and to cooperate with our enumerators. The Namibian police as well as neighborhood watch groups have been informed, and households are allowed to request the presence of security during the statistics collection. Hence, there will be no room for opportunists to misbehave as all security measures have been put in place. 
At this juncture it is also appropriate to thank the Namibian nation for the continued support and assistance they render, and have been rendering us throughout the years. It is really true when we say we appreciate the cooperation from Namibia and we would like this trend to continue. Statistics are collected for the country so that it is able to use sound information for socio-economic development planning. It is in the best interest of us all to cooperate and provide the necessary information. As per the Statistics Act, the population should rest assured that all our data collection exercises are encrypted and hence it is essentially not possible for your information to be shared or identified with other sources. Let us do this for our country, it is a short interview but provides the necessary details to complete the mapping exercise. For all your statistical needs, do not hesitate to contact us, visit our website or install our Mobile App in order to have stats on your fingertips. Stay informed. 

*Iipumbu Sakaria is the Manager for Corporate Communications at the Namibia Statistics Agency