On the weekend, November 19 and 20, Community Healthcare Agents have been invited to cooperate with the 2022 Population Census. About 500 professionals accepted the invitation and received training to work as enumerators at this last phase of data collection. That is the first initiative of this kind in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Health Secretariat also gave support to the Census pre-test on Paquetá Island (RJ) last year.

"Training Healthcare Agents to collects data following the IBGE standardized methodology will represent a legacy of the Census for the Unified Health System in the city of Rio de Janeiro," says the municipal health secretary in Rio de Janeiro, Daniel Soranz. "No one can be better than our community healthcare agents, because they are experienced in the territory of Family Healthcare Teams and can support the IBGE Population Census," says the PhD from UFRJ, Luiz Felipe Pinto.

"The Municipal Health Secretariat of Rio de Janeiro and the IBGE are an example of creative innovation, at the same time Community Agents add to the advance of data collection in the 2022 Census,” says Eduardo Rios-Neto, president of the IBGE. "The IBGE repays that with the training of these agents for the use of the Mobile Data Collection Device (DMC), to be distributed by the Ministry of Health for agents all over the national territory. This is an example to follow, and shows how to overcome obstacles imposed to public policies in the country,” Mr. Rios-Neto adds.

"This partnership is essential for the conclusion of the Census in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. Now about 70% of the population has been enumerated and, counting on the help of healthcare Agents, we will finish the Census in Rio de Janeiro in the middle of December. That is something to be adopted in other Brazilian municipalities," says Cimar Azeredo, IBGE Director of Surveys.

"The experience of Healthcare Community Agents in being in contact with the population, together with the methodological rigor of the IBGE is the perfect combination for effective and harmonic enumeration,” José Francisco Teixeira Carvalho celebrates. "We would like to count on the participation of these professionals in the 2022 Census,” says Gabriel Teixeira Barros, from the 2022 Census Coordination in Rio de Janeiro.