Position Statement on the mid-term census

On 9^th October 2020, SiERRAEYE organized its monthly debate on the motion: “This House believes that a mid-term census at this time is not necessary”.

The purpose of the debate was to provide an open platform for public discourse in favour and against the motion. In addition to the debate, SiERRAEYE also conducted a street survey in Freetown and interviewed 562 respondents to sound public opinion by asking various questions related to the general theme of education crisis in Sierra Leone.

Based on the arguments advanced at the debate, feedback from the survey and numerous consultations, SiERRAEYE proposes the following position to Government and all other actors involved in the census:

1. Though census is legal under the laws of the country it is not a not a national priority and more has to be done to educate the nation on what will happen during a census
2. There is no evidence that Statistics SL is prepared to commence the census on the 4^th December 2020 as the preparations for holding a census have not been adequately made
3. The economy is not conducive to the holding of a census
4. The holing of the mid-term census is not premised on any demography compelling circumstance
5. Instead of allocating resources to census, those resources can be allocated in building an institutional framework such as the NCRA in other to cover a most of the issues that the Census of December 2020 seeks to cover.
6. It is inappropriate to hold a census during a pandemic when people’s lives are at risk
7. There is a need for a census to cure flawed data from the previous census but the general consensus was that it should be postponed for proper preparations to be made.

Adopted: By the Board of Directors of SIERRAEYE

Dated:

END