CENSUS: PDM, Refugees, Albinism And New Data Sets to be Captured

The upcoming National Population and Housing 2024 is groundbreaking in many respects.

Not only is it the first ever digitally conducted census, but it is also the first to be funded almost entirely by the government of Uganda.

The government is injecting Shs. 321 billion in the exercise, which is about 98% of the budget, compared to the previous census in 2014 where the government provided 75% of the funding.

New data sets

In the same respect, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) is looking to leverage these advancements to capture data sets that have never been recorded before in the last 6 censuses.

Among these, the census will capture data on the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM). 

The PDM is a government programme aimed at transforming the whole country into a commercial economy using a broad-based approach.

Concerns have emerged recently about the lack of sufficient data on how the Sh 1 Trillion that the government is sinking annually in the program is being invested.

Prof Ezra Suruma, one of the masterminds of the program warned recently that “without effectively tracking the utilization of the funds at the parish level, this money will end up lost as expenditure, rather than an investment that the government is making into its population.”

The census will also capture data on Uganda’s subsistence economy. Currently, up to 39% of households are estimated to be outside the money economy. 

Enumerators will also ask questions about clanship to establish the various clans that constitute the foundations of different Ugandan societies; as well as hitherto ignored groups of people including refugees, albinos and little people.

Uganda is set to conduct the national census with the reference night being May 9, 2024.

The Census will be done in 10 days starting on 9th May 2024 to 19th May 2024.

After every 10 years, Uganda holds a national census and the last one was carried out in 2014.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Executive Director Dr Chris Mukiza recently said the census figures play a critical role in guiding planning, policy formulation, and programme implementation as well as monitoring development progress in line with the national goals and objectives.