PREPARATION OF THE GENERAL CENSUS OF THE POPULATION, HOUSEHOLD, AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK IN BURUNDI OF 2022

As part of the preparation of the general census of the population, household, agriculture and livestock in Burundi of 2022, the Assistant to the Minister Mr Syldie Manirerekana, together with the Director General in charge of Multilateral Relations Ambassador Isaie Kubwayo, officially opened a meeting to mobilize partners, on Tuesday October 26, 2021.

In his speech, the Minister’s Assistant recalled that since its Independence, Burundi has already carried out three general population and household censuses, respectively in 1979, 1990 and 2008. These are statistical operations of national scope that provide information on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population and on the household conditions and well-being of households down to the finest geographical level.

The data from the general population and household census of 2008 has become obsolete, it appeared necessary to organize a new census in order to update the socio-demographic indicators, the data on household and the database survey. This is more necessary since Burundi has adhered to the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (CIPD) which recommends, among other things, that countries organize, as much as possible, a census every ten years.

In addition, Burundi does not have detailed information on the characteristics and structure of agriculture and livestock covering the entire territory, specifically on households and farmers, apart from data relating to the characteristics of the population from the 1979, 1990 and 2008 censuses.

For all these reasons and in order to meet the needs of users, the Government of Burundi, through the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of Burundi (ISTEEBU), has undertaken to increase the statistical supply by organizing the fourth General Census of Population and Household which integrates the basic module of the General Census of Agriculture and Livestock.

The Minister’s Assistant also indicated that this major statistical operation, instituted by Decree No. 100/109 of November 30, 2020 establishing the general census of the population, housing, agriculture and livestock in Burundi in 2022, sets the legal bases of the operation and defines its organizational structures, thus translating the manifest desire of the Government of Burundi to include it as a priority, among the priority planning and program implementation projects and country development projects. He also indicated that this desire was also reflected by the official launch of this census, on September 10, by  the President of the Republic of Burundi, General Major HE Evariste NDAYISHIMIYE who invited the partners to support Burundi, especially its Responsible and Laborious Government, in this vast and heavy statistical project.

Thus, the Minister’s Assistant indicated that Burundi will carry out its fourth census which will include several phases, namely: census mapping, pilot census, actual enumeration of the population, post-census survey, processing data, data analysis, publication, and dissemination of results and archiving of technical documents and data to enable the country to have up-to-date data on population, household, agriculture and breeding in August 2022.

Before closing the speech, the Minister’s Assistant did not forget to let it be known that one of the particularities of this 4th census is that it will be digitized in order to improve the quality of the data, to have the results available within a reasonably short period of time, reduce the costs of storing questionnaires and acquiring equipment and limiting clerical errors by eliminating the traditional steps of verification, coding and entry.

Towards the end of the session, some of the partners gave their opinions. The one who represented the UNFPA said that the UNFPA said it was committed to supporting the activities of this census. As for the one who represented the WHO, after asking if the census will include the health module, he too indicated that the WHO will support this census. And the one who represented the ADB indicated that the ADB was not well aware of this activity. For this, he asked the Government of Burundi to seize the ADB to support this important activity of the country.