MOCHUDI - The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is working round the clock in preparing for the population and housing census (PHC) trial in August 2010 and the subsequent census in August 2011.

The CSO personnel are touring different districts to introduce the 2011 PHC project to district authorities.

Briefing Kgatleng District authorities in Mochudi recently, the government statistician, Ms Annah Majelantle said only five per cent of the population will be targeted for the pilot census with emphasis on the challenging areas such as Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Okavango and Chobe, among others.

Ms Majelantle noted that Botswana has a long history of census dating back to the colonial era.

She revealed that since independence in 1966, the country has carried out four decennial censuses, the last being the 2001 census.

Ms Majelantle revealed that the goal of the census is to contribute to the improvement of life through providing the government and other stakeholders with relevant, reliable and timely data and information for development planning, policy formulation and services delivery.

The census data, she said, is also used for constituency delimitation processes as required under the constitution of Botswana.

The data provides information on geographic and administrative distribution of the population in addition to the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of all the people in the country.

The data from the census is also classified, tabulated and disseminated so that political leaders, elections officials, planners, national organisations including NGOs and civil society, regional and international organisations can use it for evidence-based decision-making, policy formation, monitoring and evaluation processes of development strategies such as NDP 10, Vision 2016 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

For the purpose of good governance, census poverty maps are produced to guide the distribution of resources and allocation of public spending in poverty reduction strategies, she said.

The interim national census coordinator, Mr Guest Charumbira called on the district authorities to see to it that district committees are formed to publicise the census.

Among others, the district census committees will be tasked with the responsibilities of verifying district boundaries, working with neighbouring districts to verify boundaries as well as budgeting at district level.

He said the setting up of boundaries should be dealt with caution and the communities should be convinced to buy into the statistics and the boundaries created.

Cartography will involve listing and numbering of all the dwellings and building structures countrywide.

All towns and cities have been listed and they will be visiting the districts soon to do the same.BOPA