Commentary: Ethiopia’s census dilemma: from implementation gap to the politics
Major cities in Ethiopia are experiencing an unprecedented boom in population sizes
Yordanos Seifu Estifanos, For Addis Standard
Addis Abeba, December 18/2018 – Population and housing census is one of the main sources of data on vital statistics ranging from birth to death. It is used as a basis for many social and economic projections, trend analyses, national planning, budget allocations or what have you. Researches also benefit from the availability of compatible data; and surveys, such as the Labor Force Survey, use census as base value to frame their sampling. Census is also the source for data on otherwise overlooked conditions like disability, making it the most common basis for macro level economic and social researches. Now imagine research findings that are based on wrong or inadequate data, and subsequent policies that are based on such inputs; it’d be a snowballing disaster.
