South African experience in conducting Census Post Enumeration Survey 1996 and 2001

South African experience in conducting Census Post Enumeration Survey1996 and 2001 Presenter: Marlize Pistorius/Gwen Lehloenya 16 September 2009

Background • Domain of estimation • Sample design • Comparison of PES 1996 and 2001 • Lessons Learnt • Recommendations/conclusion Profile of the presentation

The aim of the Population Census is to give an exhaustive account of population A ‘perfect” census is impossible, but census figures are still valuable if the quality and the limitations of the data are understood by the users An assessment of the magnitude and direction of the errors in a census is done through a Post-enumeration survey to respond on accuracy of the census results The 1996 Census and 2001 census used the post-enumeration survey to measure the proportion of the population not reached by the enumeration operations Background

In 1996 Census, the target population in PES was limited to persons present in households in residential dwellings (excluding persons in prisons, hospitals and other institutions). In 2001 Census, the target universe for the PES: apply only to the housing-unit and workers’ hostel of the sub-universe in selected EA types of the sampling frame (farm, hostel, informal settlement, small holding, tribal settlement, and urban settlement) excluding other collective living quarters. The EA types that are out of scope are: Industrial, institutional, recreational, and vacant EA types. Reliable domains of estimation are: o National o National, urban/non-urban o Province Domain of estimation

In 1996, a sample of around 800 enumeration areas (EAs) was drawn with equal probability from the administrative list of EAs compiled during the cartographic phase. (Sample stratified by province and by EA type: formal urban, informal urban, tribal, commercial farms or other non-urban) In 2001, the sample was reduced to 600 enumeration areas in order to accommodate the reconciliation visits processes. (Sample stratified by reliable domain of estimation, geographic type and EA type) Sample design

Comparison of PES 1996 and 2001

For reasons of confidentiality, Provincial Survey Managers (PSM) were provided with only place names of selected EAs. This brought a big challenge as they were requested to appoint fieldworkers from the specific areas. It was discovered that some of the given place names were incorrect only after fieldworkers were recruited and trained from those areas. Lessons learnt

Lessons learnt In farm areas, recruitment criteria had to be lowered in order to appoint fieldworkers, as whites with Matric certificates were unavailable. Also this helped fill in positions left by dropouts. Training in respective provinces had some difficulties because of the large number of the trainees and the heterogeneity of the groups. The mixture of veteran and fresh recruits made training difficult. Due to poor training, in some cases, some parts of the questionnaire were left blank by some enumerators. Suggestions were made that in future, the statement “office use” be removed, as it was confusing.

Respondents refused to be enumerated in pencil. There were a high number of refusals in white suburbs due to security reasons. Also for security reasons, guides were used in politically volatile areas. In some squatter areas, people moved to their new homes with their stickers. On other occasions, multiple stickers were found, some housing units had stickers without being enumerated by census, some stickers were collected by census supervisors, some householders had thrown away their stickers as they were told to do so by census enumerators 3 days after enumeration. Lessons learnt

Language was a problem in some suburbs where respondents requested Afrikaans questionnaires and refused to be enumerated using an English questionnaire; in mine hostels where respondents speak languages unknown to fieldworkers (Shangaan, Xhosa, Portugese etc.) Collision between PES and census in the field created a delay in the progress of PES operation. In 3 provinces (Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape), the samples had to be partially replaced. In Gauteng, re-sampling had to be done for the areas for which the materials were lost. Lessons learnt

Field staff complained about the cars provided for fieldwork Accidents and hijacking. The distances within the supervisory units were sometimes too big. This led the supervisors to travel large distances in one day. Supervisors who could not drive were a big burden. PES publicity could not be done properly during listing as census was still in the field. Lessons learnt

The similarity of the attire worn by fieldworkers to the one of census made matters worse. Also the similarity of the colour to the one of the police did not help much. PES questionnaire designed to be used with scanning to determine matching. Problems with scanners hence automated matching was abandoned and resorted to manual matching process. Introduction of sophisticated technology does not necessarily immediately solve timing and other challenges, especially the first time the technology is used. Lessons learnt

Manual matching had its limitations Examples: Misallocation of questionnaires in another EA boxes Some PES questionnaires had some stickers but without their corresponding Census questionnaires. Matching of Persons with insufficient information Questionnaires with wrong EA numbers Questionnaires not matching but having the same EA numbers Lessons learnt

Boundary interpretation a problem, especially in informal settlements. Enumerators struggled to relate the features on map with the features on the ground. Persons missed by PES/Census or both - This type of the problems was a result of the proxy information, either from the domestic worker or the respondent was not really sure of other particulars of the actual person. In addition the movement of people during the holidays and school vacations, caused a lot of problems. Some respondents skipped kids because of age. In urban areas, the occupants were hardly found during the day and the enumerator could not revisit the dwelling for the second time at a different time (since boundary was never a problem in such areas) Lessons learnt

Lessons learnt Missed EAs – especially in Informal settlements and farms Data capturing - Questionnaire not designed for manual capturing

The PES 2001 methodology was much more comprehensive than the 1996 methodology Conclusion

The End

South African experience in conducting Census Post Enumeration Survey 1996 and 2001