DEVELOPMENT DEBATE AND PRACTICE: A situational appraisal of demographic data utilisation in planning in the Eastern Cape province

Z. N. Mfono

Development Southern Africa, 2000, vol. 17, issue 4, 621-628

Abstract: The relationship between population and development is frequently highlighted in international debates as signifying that changes in population size, age and gender structures, settlement patterns and other population characteristics have implications for public policy planning and for developing evaluation indicators. This study explores the accessibility, quality, userfriendliness and other aspects of demographic data from a planning perspective. Planners from South Africa's Eastern Cape provincial Departments of Education and Health were interviewed and the policy documents were studied to determine how they incorporate population variables. The findings indicate dissatisfaction among planners with the quality of available demographic data at sub-national levels, particularly for the smaller geographic units - regions, districts and villages. Inadequate coordination of data compilation and evaluation is another common perception. There is consensus on the potential contribution of demographic data to improved planning, and recommendations for improving demographic data accessibility and use were made.

Date: 2000
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03768350050173967 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:deveza:v:17:y:2000:i:4:p:621-628

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CDSA20

DOI: 10.1080/03768350050173967

Access Statistics for this article

Development Southern Africa is currently edited by Marie Kirsten

More articles in Development Southern Africa from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().