Census 2010 National Publicity Chairperson Gilbert Maimbo says media partnership with the Central Statistcal Office (CSO) in this year’s census is critical to ensure optimal results are obtained from the exercise.
Speaking at the media workshop at Kabwe’s Zambezi Source Lodge today, Mr. Maimbo said the media play an essential role in the dissemination of vital information to the general public hence the need for the partnership between CSO and the media.
Mr Maimbo, who is also Director for Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) urged media personnel drawn from both public and private institutions to help clear and dispel misconceptions about the 2010 census by the public.
Mr Maimbo said the media should ensure that there was no cheating in the provision of data in this year’s census.
He said census information was important for planning and budgeting purposes hence the need for the media to ensure the masses were adequately and correctly informed for them to cooperate during the census.
And Central Province Regional Statistician, Chika Zulu said the purpose of the workshop was to educate media personnel about the 2010 census roadmap and engage the media in the sensitisation of the public to ensure maximum coperation from them.
Ms Zulu said for every village and household to be counted in the forthcoming census, CSO depended so much on the input of the media.
She said CSO through the National Publicity Commitee called-up the workshop for media personnel to agree on the best means of transmitting census information to the public.
The 2010 census is scheduled to commence in October this year and will focus on housing, agriculture , education and health services.
Zambia’s population is estaimated at 13 million people.
[ ZANIS ]
Is it necessary to hold a census especially that many Zambian can still not afford square meals. Why spend all that money to such useless project which will only be used to rig next year’s election by VJ.
#25 How do you plan welfare spending when you dont have basic idea on how many people are there in country? In Zambia we have census every ten years. The data is used in all sorts of ways and not just electoral rigging which up till now nobody has been able to prove. Without the census, we will not be able to say for example if the levels of infant mortality are falling or whether life expectancy has increased or decreased.