As countries strive to address the reproductive health needs of their citizens, understanding the distribution of key populations is important as it helps the authorities allocate resources appropriately and equitably. Mitali Sen, Chief of Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Program, stresses that countries need to collect data reporting the number of women living between the ages of 15 and 49—generally the age where women are most likely to have children. “This,” she says, “will help governments know how and where to prioritize their family planning resources.”
The U.S. Census Bureau is providing technical assistance in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Mali, Pakistan and Namibia to build capacity in population census and survey activities. In Malawi, for instance, the Census Bureau helped the nation become one of the first countries to complete a census in record time, processing and releasing the data within three months from the date of census. For the first time in its history, Malawi conducted an electronic census through the enumerators [the people who collect census data] using tablets, which is a huge technological shift from the previous system of using paper-based enumeration. It then becomes easy to run checks on such data.
While governments may know the number of people infected by malaria in a certain place, they may not necessarily know how many people are living in that same area. That is where population census data help. The census is often the only data source with the full age/sex structure of the country down to the lowest levels of geography, including the village level. Those numbers are important as model inputs for a range of health prevention and treatment programs. “Census [data] are the only data set that goes down to the lowest level of geography, which is essential for measuring health indicators and the impact of health programs. Therefore, we are in Africa in such a big way,” says Sen.
Even though the U.S. Census Bureau may have a huge impact on the population census in a particular country, Sen notes that it does not impose rules on what methods should be adopted or how countries should use the data they collect. “It is their data and they are in control,” she stated. “We are only there to help and show them international standards and we respect their decisions and privacy of their data. Thus far, that has been our single most important secret to success.”