Technology is playing a transformative role in the 2020 round of African censuses.
Thanks to digital innovation supported by the African Centre for Statistics (ACS), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and their partners, the 2015-2024 census round is providing countries with more credible data, statistics and geospatial information. The developments have the potential to benefit many more countries.
Key has been the use of tablets and smartphones with specialized software developed and tailored to each country by ECA, which has enabled:
In Kenya, the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), with assistance from ECA and the UK’s Office of National Statistics (ONS), used tablets to complete its census in a record four months. The programme used to calibrate the tablets saved a total of 506 days. The joint KNBS and ECA tablet-sharing programme was hailed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as “a rare fusion of pan-Africanism and the information age”. See https://www.president.go.ke/2021/04/01/kenya-shares-its-census-technology-with-other-african-countries/.
During the “30 days to Ghana Census,” the country’s President highlighted six innovations, including the ECA’s development of a unique dashboard and real-time monitoring.
This is part of a digital census “package” being developed by ECA to support Member States in the 2020-2030 census round. This includes a provisioning application developed by ACS that automatically loads the correct documents and software onto each tablet and ensures distribution to the right enumeration and supervision areas. Meanwhile the ECA has developed dashboards that manage progress and quality of enumeration and provide real-time information for all stakeholders. So far this has provided technical assistance to almost 16 countries. Its applications have been widely used by others and have the potential to assist many others undertake more cost-effective, credible and reliable censuses.