Ubos to conduct post-enumeration survey to validate census results

In line with international best practices of conducting a National Population and Housing Census, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) will conduct a Post Enumeration Survey (PES) this August in one-tenth of all the 135 districts and 11 cities, writes ERNEST JJINGO.

PES is an independent exercise aimed at validating the quality of census results in terms of coverage and content. It replicates a census, and its results are compared with the census results.

According to Chris Mukiza, Ubos executive director, PES is a statistical standard requirement that once a census has been completed, within three months a survey will be conducted to validate the census results. He says they shall check the coverage of the census exercise and the content, especially the basic particulars of the members of the household such as sex, education level and employment status.

“This survey is not as comprehensive as the census because we are doing a one per cent sample. We are going in 1,000 enumeration areas instead of 110,000, and we have cut down on the questionnaire. The exercise will take only five days and by end of August we shall have finished it,” he said.

He further noted that it is recommended that if the under coverage is bigger than 10 per cent, then they shall use this survey to update the census results, but if it is lower than 10 per cent, it will indicate that the census results were precise.

However, under this exercise, persons living in institutions such as education, religious, refugee camps, police, prisons, UPDF barracks, hostels, reformatories, orphanages, inpatients at medical institutions, police or army cells as well as children born the previous night will not be enumerated.

The bureau said it has already identified a team of independent personnel who have already undergone training at national level. The training at the 15 statistical sub-regions is underway and it will immediately be followed with data collection. The survey is going to cost Shs 3.9 billion which money was already budgeted for in this financial year.

“Ubos would like to appeal to all households in the sampled villages to cooperate with field staff to ensure accurate capture of the information. All LC chairpersons; I, II and II are encouraged to mobilize their respective selected villages to enhance full enumeration coverage,” Mukiza said.

PAYMENTS

The bureau has also revealed that it is yet to pay 1,519 enumerators out of the 115,846 who carried out the census exercise.

According to Mukiza, these have not yet been paid mainly because of mismatch where the name of the enumerator does not correspond with the name on registered mobile number, loss of census equipment like tablets and power banks with their accessories and the name not being submitted by the accounting officers of their respective local governments.

Mukiza also added that out of the 112,970 field guides who participated in the census enumeration, a total of 109,730 (97. 1 per cent) have been paid whereas 3,240 have not been paid yet owing to mismatch. For enumeration supervisors, there were 14,643, of whom 13,272 have been paid, while 1,371 are yet to be paid pending correction of their details while out of the 4,713 sub-county supervisors who participated, only 120 are yet to be paid.

Meanwhile, for the local government officials involved in the census who included Chief Administrative Officers (CAO), District Chairpersons (LCV), Resident District Commissioners (RDC), Resident City Commissioners (RCC), District Police Commanders (DPC), and District Internal Security Officers (DISO), District Census Officer (DCO), Assistant District Census Officer (ADCO), District Internal Auditor and District Information Technology Officer (DITO) totaling 1,635, payment of this category was phased such that the enumeration staff are paid first.

So far 912 (55.78%) have been paid and 663 are to be paid in this month.

“Ubos would like to assure the public especially those who have not received their payments that all efforts are being put towards, ensuring that everyone is paid. We are working closely with officials of the local government, especially the districts and cities, to ensure that the pending field participants are all cleared for payment. The Bureau would like to emphasize that all participants in the census enumeration will receive their entitlements directly through mobile money or bank account presented in one’s individual name,” Mukiza said.

Furthermore, the bureau says it deployed 122,026 tablets during census enumeration and so far, 121, 197 (99.3%) tablets have been retrieved from the districts and cities whereas 829 are yet to be retrieved. Meanwhile, out of the 119,418 power banks which were sent into the field, 107,685 (90.2%) have been retrieved so far and 11,733 are yet to be retrieved.

“Some of them were genuinely lost but there are others which were stolen by the enumerators and supervisors. So, the alternative we have given them is that if they cannot find them, they have to pay Shs 80,000 for the power bank and Shs 750,000 for a tablet to a URA account, and we are treating it as a disposal of a public asset,” Mukiza said.

Preliminary results of the National Population and Housing Census in May 2024 indicate that Uganda has a total population of 45.9 million people. The bureau is currently processing and analyzing raw census data to the village level with the final results to be disseminated at the end of September 2024.