By Bill W. Cooper
The Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) and partners over the weekend, deployed 200 national geographic mappers across the country.
The exercise is intended to demarcate enumeration areas through the creation of area maps for the conduct of the 2021 National Population and Housing Census (NPHC) in Liberia.
Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor urged every Liberian to go back to their county of origin during the census process to be counted as a means of boosting their community’s population and to enable the government decentralize its development program.
Earlier, officially launching the deployment of mappers, the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of LISGIS, Samuel Tweah, bragged that this year NPHC will be the first digital and most reliable census to ever be conducted in Liberia and called for a sustained and comprehensive awareness through the media to ensure the entire populace is informed.
According to the Finance and Development Planning Minister, the government of President Weah will continued to support the process and thereby revealed that US$1 million has been disbursed to LISGIS in this current fiscal budget.
“The Executive, will also be requesting another US$1 million for LISGIS in the next six-month budget that begins in July this year and that will mark the transition to a calendar year budget,” Tweah assured.
He added, “This census will be the most accurate, most up-to-date and most reliable in the history of the country; taking advantage of digital advances in technology.”
House Speaker Bhofal Chambers stressed the importance of census as it drives development and therefore cautioned the geographic mappers to be ‘dutiful and meticulous’ in the discharge of their duties so that everyone can be counted.
In remarks, the LISGIS’ Director General, Prof. Francis Wreh intoned that as part of its main functions and responsibilities, LISGIS is about to conduct the 5th National Population and Housing Census, and the first census to use digital technology after the 1962, 1974, 1984, and the 2008 censuses.
He then lauded the Government of Liberia, UNFPA, the World Bank, the Governments of Sweden and Ireland and other development partners for their tireless support in ensuring that this year census is successful, adding that, “From all indications, the conduct of Liberia’s second post war census is at hand. The law permits it, and the urgency demands it. The country’s readiness goes back to the signing of the Census Project Document with partners in October 2019.”
Speaking on behalf of the donors, UNFPA Resident Representative, Bannet Ndyanabangi, called on the Legislature to issue a new proclamation since the March 8, 2021 date did not hold, emphasizing, “We would count on the Speaker and the House of Representatives as well as the President Pro-Tempore and the Liberian Senate to issue a new proclamation on the new date for the conduct of the census, commonly called “Census Day.”
He further stated that since their partnership with the government, lots have been achieved including the acquisition of state-of-the-art technology, Satellite Imagery for Liberia, Google Cloud Storage Services, Survey 123 application, Tablets, Vehicles, and human expertise are all in place including the training of 200 field mappers, supervisors, and coordinator in the use of modern digital mapping applications that were to be deployed nationwide on April 2 of 2021.
It can be recalled, in July, 2020, the Legislature adopted a Joint Resolution #003/2020 which set Monday, March 8, 2021 as the date for the conduct of the National Population and Housing Census but the exercise did not go as planed as the result of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country as well as lack of budgetary allocation.