URBAN AFFAIRS:- Planning and census 2001 SO WE have decided to conduct our national census in September 2001 after all. This is good news for urban and regional planners because the information to be collected is vital for a variety of reasons, not least among them, as a planning tool. Government agencies, students, researchers, planners of all sorts, businesses, and policy makers all have need for forecasting the future, analysing trends, and for making projections which aid in decision making. Public sector agencies rely on this information to determine location of new schools, employment trends in the country, health care requirements, transportation and poor relief needs, analysis of public policy, and the development, evaluation and implementation of programmes. Parliamentary and local government boundaries are drawn based on census information. And businesses require census figures to determine where to locate their operations; they need to know the structure, location and spending power of the population, and availability of labour. In Jamaica as in all census jurisdictions, there is a major problem with undercounting. This, more often than not, leads to communities that can ill afford being short-changed in terms of transportation, health care, policing, teachers, schools, fire stations, garbage collection, provision of utilities, libraries, parks, services for the elderly, women and youth, economic development, job creation and training. In Jamaica there is tremendous misunderstanding, distrust and suspicion of the purpose for which census data is collected. A major area that suffers from this malady is income, a category that has been notable in its omission from recent censuses. Needless to say, in planning for such activities as services, transportation, entertainment, or anything that requires information on disposable income there will be uncertainty if income is not canvassed and reported. Without that information, you are planning in the dark. STATIN, which has responsibility for census data gathering, analysis and distribution has its work cut out in convincing the population that individual information will not be shared with anyone outside of STATIN not the police, not the tax collectorate, absolutely no one. STATIN, as the responsible agency, must ensure that the population participates and at a high level. Here are some strategies that may ensure this: Early and aggressive enumeration effort resend questionnaires to non-responding households. Use of media for early and sustained campaign. Designing easier to understand data collection instruments. Ensuring that forms are easily accessible and available. Placing forms in public places for easy access. Plan for illiterate citizenry; there are more of us who are functionally illiterate than we wish to acknowledge. Identify those who are most likely to be undercounted and then target them. Contributed by Patrick Anderson, president, Jamaica Institute of Planners.
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