Malawi, one of Africa's poorest countries, will kick-off its fifth post-independence census from June 8 at a cost of 18.4 million US dollars, a top government official said Saturday.
The three-week census will "help in allowing planners and decision makers to plan effectively and efficiently for development activities," Charles Machinjiri, commissioner for the state-funded national statistical office, said in a statement.
Machinjiri said "everyone living in Malawi should be ready to be counted in this census because this is a very important exercise for the country's development."
"The census will provide the country with valuable information for good governance, decentralisation and development planning," Esperance Fundira, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) resident representative in Malawi, said.
The Malawi government, UNFPA, Britain, Germany, and Ireland are the major sponsors of the census, which will have 13,000 enumerators spread throughout the country's 28 districts.
Malawi, one of the countries worst-hit by the AIDS pandemic, conducted its last head count in 1998 when the recorded population was 9.8 million.
According to UNFPA, the 1998 census showed the country had an annual population growth of 1.9 percent.
The population of the southern African nation is estimated at 12 million, three times the number established in the first census in 1966, two years after independence from Britian.
About 14 percent of the population is infected with the HIV virus.
The AIDS pandemic has cut life expectancy in Malawi to 36.
Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries where half of the population live below the poverty line of one dollar a day and per capita domestic product is around 210 dollars (155 euros) per year.
Saturday, 7 June 2008
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