Key UNFPA implementing partners in Myanmar pledged their support to help support nation-wide efforts to highlight the importance of Myanmar's landmark 2014 census at a meeting hosted at the United Nations compound in Yangon on 29 October 2013.
Eighteen participants, including the Myanmar Medical Association (MMA), Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association (MMCWA), Marie Stopes International (MSI), Myanmar Anti-Narcotics Association (MANA), François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB), Myanmar Red Cross Society, Jon Snow, Population Services International (PSI) and the Myanmar Health and Development Consortium gave their backing to raise awareness of next year's population count.
Ms. Janet Jackson, UNFPA’s Myanmar Representative, urged the group of participants to reach out to their local counterparts and communities, as well as share ideas on how best reach out to rural communities and other vulnerable groups living in remote areas to ensure an accurate and reliable census.
“You are our ambassadors in the field, and you have the potential to make the census work. This can only be a success if we all work together in order to ensure that accurate information on the census process reaches the whole of Myanmar,” said Ms. Jackson. “The census can potentially be a catalyst to help push forward the current socio-economic transformation. Let’s make this a socially driven exercise.”
She also stressed the importance of addressing some of the misconceptions that currently exist amongst the population over the census process. Notably over how the census will work in practice, the importance of the census night, the new Census law and how the individual collected data will be used, including issues relating to ethnicities and household lists. “Help us create awareness for the census by reaching out and building bridges with communities all over the country. Let us make this a bottom up approach, and let’s ensure that everyone, in every corner of the country, is counted,” Ms. Jackson said.
Everyone who is present in Myanmar territory on the night of 29th March 2014 will be counted, regardless of citizenship, ethnicity, age, gender, status etc. The census count is planned to take place from 29 March to 10 April 2014.
