Local Homestead Census Project

We’ve been helping our community tally and analyze the results of a big local census (which was shaped and organized thanks to Jamie’s efforts). Local rural health workers were recruited to visit homesteads in their “coverage areas” and conduct the census, and we have now received demographic information for 1,377 homesteads—that’s over 11,000 people—in all 4 surrounding Chiefdoms that comprise our Inkhundla.

Why do this? Well, the simple answer is this: without basic, up-to-date information about these homesteads, it’s nearly impossible for local leaders to assess the community’s primary needs and to secure proper resources from both government and charitable organizations. So this census not only provides that basic information, but it also familiarizes locals with the process of conducting a census—and the importance of doing them.

Many NGOs show up in our community with all manner of handouts, from food to tents to clothing, and they ask the Headmen to please point them in the direction of the “neediest” local homesteads. But that’s a terrible way of doing things. It reveals a deep misunderstanding of the local jealousies and favoritisms (read: corruption) plaguing Swazi society. And that “show up and ask” approach also assumes that the Headmen actually have that kind of demographic information at the ready. But they don’t. No one does. So this census will at least provide everyone with an objective look at the community’s homesteads and their relative levels of need—a snapshot that will be out of date rather quickly, but is at least a good beginning.

So anyway, here are a few of the more startling things our Census has revealed about this community:

· 49% are kids, under the age of 18, with the vast majority of them (39%) under the age of 14.

· Of all the kids, 35% are either single- or double-parent orphans. That’s 17% of the total population.

· Of the remaining 51% that are adults, just 14% are over the age of 45. (sidenote: the national average life expectancy is currently around 34).

· Just 8% of the surveyed adults report having income from formal employment. (informal employment is more common). That’s an unemployment rate of 92%… and we think the US is struggling with joblessness!

So the “average” local homestead houses about 8 people—4 adults and 4 kids—and if they’re very lucky, one of those adults is bringing in steady money for everyone else to live on. If the family has any wealth or assets, it’s most likely in the form of cattle and/or goats.

After compiling all this census data, we set about finding an objective way to “measure” the different levels of need and risk that a given homestead faces. The need for an objective risk assessment is due to all the favoritism and jealousy that often hinder well-meaning assistance efforts. As cold as it may sound, we needed to take all these personal situations and express them in numerical terms—that is, assign a “Risk Score.” So we worked on building a formula, variously weighted by the number of orphans and working adults and elderly adults, the ratio of kids to adults and other ratios… and then we applied it to all the homestead reports. And what we’ve come up with so far seems to do a pretty good job at identifying the most at-risk homesteads— and without any last names or locations; nothing subjective to corrupt things.

The situations on homesteads with the highest risk scores are pretty bleak. They have no adult at all, or else very few adults (unemployed, of course, and likely elderly) with lots of orphans to care for. Here’s what a 15.22 risk score looks like on paper: 1 adult who’s 60-74 years-old and earns no income; 9 kids (5 younger than 14), 7 of whom are orphans. Yikes!

So we’ve graphed all this information and are teaching our local counterparts in community leadership to read and access the data. And hopefully, when the next organization comes and asks for the “neediest” homesteads, they’ll at least have something to reference.