MONROVIA – The National Civil Society Council of Liberia (NCSCL) has called for the inclusion of civil society in the remaining phases of the planning and conduct of Liberia’s first digital census.
The NCSCL made the request through its National Chairperson Loretta Pope-Kai in an open letter to the acting Director-General of the Liberia Institute of Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) Wilmot Smith. It comes on the back of a turbulent enumerators’ recruitment exercise that led to the postponement of the census from October 24, 2022 to November 22, 2022.
It said its request for an all-inclusive participation and urgent resolution stemmed from the “reported violent disruption of Liberia’s first digital census by embittered potential enumerators who made various claims, including their wrongful exclusion from the list of qualified applicants in some counties.
“To this end, we firmly request for an all-inclusive governance and management structure and implementation processes that involve the full participation of coordinating structures of civil society organizations, including the National Civil Society Council of Liberia in the remaining phases of the Census operations,” the Council said.
The Council warns if the earlier mentioned prevailing situation is not urgently addressed and appropriate holistic measures put in place to prevent recurrence of the same, it will condition the climate for more violent tensions; disgruntled disqualified applicants may derail or hold at hostage the process, and should splinters from the situation pass to other phases, dissatisfied enumerators will poorly perform.
The ultimate consequences, it warned, will be limited data sufficiency, data quality, and data integrity of the harvested census facts.; adding that should this be the case, evidence-based, quality, and reliable development planning by Government and NGO actors alike will not be guaranteed.
Further in the communication, the Council called for the application of multi-actor, collaborative problem-solving and partnership-based approaches that include the full participation of civil society organizations for the resolution of the current situation and in the remaining implementation stages of the census.
According to the Council, since the inception of the census process, it has observed, with much discontent, that the planning and implementation processes had not been all-inclusive, leaving the lion share of development partners, especially CSOs behind.
It noted that LISGIS has been plagued with operational issues including inadequate public sensitization, especially at the grass root level; limited period allocated for enumeration exercise and fluid recruitment process; and financial and other accountability issues.
“Mr. Director General, there is no gain in saying the role of CSOs is a nexus between the state and the people; watchdog of society; and a major actor in national development. Therefore, your full inclusion of coordinating CSO structures such as the National Civil Society Council, the umbrella organization of all CSOs in Liberia, will be a significant corrective measure going forward,” Madam Pope-Kai said.