The Central Statistical Agency (CSA) launched today a national training of trainers to support the 4th Ethiopia Population and Housing Census scheduled to be held in February 2018.

While officially opening the training in Adama, Biratu Yigezu, Director-General of CSA, said that over 185,000 enumerators would be participating in the census across the country. He noted that all these enumerators need to be trained before engaging in the enumeration work.

During training of trainers that lasts for twelve days, the trainees who are all staff members of CSA that came from the different regional states of Ethiopia, will be trained on how to fill the questionnaire, approach households/respondents, use the tablets for enumeration and how to send the completed questionnaire online to the central server.

The CSA Director General emphasized the need for greater attention and discipline during the training to prevent misunderstanding at this level that could be reflected in the enumerators the trainees are going to train in the near future.

In a speech he made on behalf of UNFPA, Dr. Collins Opiyo, Chief Census Technical Advisor, said on the occasion that quality is the number one priority in census. “We need good quality data to support development activities and improve the welfare of all Ethiopians,” he said. He underlined the need to provide effective training up to the grassroots level for the success of the enumeration work.

UNFPA is working closely with CSA and the Ethiopian government to ensure that the upcoming Population and Housing Census is implemented in accordance with international standards and best practices. In particular UNFPA supports use of technology to improve quality and timeliness of census results recommended by the United Nations for the 2020 round of Population and Housing Censuses. It is the lead UN agency coordinating resource mobilization among development partners to strengthen the capacity of the CSA to implement the census successfully. UNFPA has also hired and seconded to CSA a Chief Technical Adviser, a GIS Expert and a Communication Expert as well as several short term consultants, and plans to continue to hire more experts as needed. In addition, UNFPA has procured and installed various equipment and software to support successful census implementation.

Over 1,000 trainees are participating in the training in Adama. A similar training of trainers was launched in Hawassa on the same day involving about 600 trainees.