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Assuring good field work

Assuring good field work. Juan Muñoz. What happens when fieldwork is poor?. A long and frustrating process of “data cleaning” becomes unavoidable The data loose their policy-making relevance

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Assuring good field work

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  1. Assuring good field work Juan Muñoz

  2. What happens when fieldwork is poor? • A long and frustrating process of “data cleaning” becomes unavoidableThe data loose their policy-making relevance • Data quality is not guaranteedThe process converges (at best) to databases that are internally consistent • The process entails a myriad of decisions, generally undocumentedUsers mistrust the data

  3. Key factors • Manage the survey as an integrated project • Implement the team concept in the organization of field operations • Integrate computer-based quality controls to field operations • Establish strong supervision procedures • Ensure sufficient training • Work with a reduced staff over an extended period of data collection

  4. Management levels • Core staff • Survey manager • Field operations manager • Data manager • Tactical options for the organization of field teams • Mobile teams with fixed data entry • Mobile teams with integrated data entry • Sometime in the future: the paperless interview

  5. Mobile teams with fixed data entry • Cote d’Ivoire (1984) • Peru (1985) • Ghana • Pakistan • Guinea-Conakry • Mozambique • Iraq (2006)

  6. Data entry operator Anthropo-metrist Supervisor Interviewers Composition of a field team

  7. The team and its tools Anthropo- metrist Data entry operator Supervisor Interviewers

  8. Two PSUs visited in a four-week period Alama Bamako Regional Office

  9. First week Alama Bamako Regional Office Operator remains in Regional Office They complete first half of questionnaires in all selected households Rest of the team travels to Alama

  10. Second week Alama Bamako Regional Office Operator enters first week data from Alama They complete first half of questionnaires in all selected households Rest of the team travels to Bamako

  11. Second week Alama Bamako Regional Office Supervisor gives Bamako questionnaires to DEO. DEO gives back Alama questionnaires with flagged inconsistencies Rest of the team travels to Bamako and back

  12. Third week Alama Bamako Regional Office Operator enters first week data from Bamako Team completes second half of questionnaires. They correct inconsistencies from first half

  13. Fourth week Alama Bamako Regional Office Operator enters second week data from Alama. Corrects inconsistencies from first round Team completes second half of questionnaires. They correct inconsistencies from first half

  14. Fourth week The result is a clean data set on diskette, ready for analysis immediately after data collection Regional Office

  15. Mobile teams with integrated data entry • Nepal (1992 and 2001) • Argentina • Paraguay • Bangladesh (2000)

  16. Mobile teams with integrated data entry Bamako Cocody Alama Team works with portable computers and printers Regional Office

  17. Mobile teams with integrated data entry Bamako Cocody Alama Operator travels with the rest of the field team Regional Office

  18. Mobile teams with integrated data entry Bamako Cocody Alama Data entry and validation almost immediate Regional Office

  19. Mobile teams with integrated data entry Bamako Cocody Alama Reduced trips to and from Regional Office to selected PSUs Regional Office

  20. Mobile teams with integrated data entry Bamako Cocody Alama Regional Office

  21. Benefits of integration • Provides reliable and timely databases • Provides immediate feedback on the performance of the field staff, allowing early detection of inadequate behaviors • Ensures that all field staff applies uniform criteria throughout the full period of data collection • Solves inconsistencies through direct verification of households reality, rather that through office guessing • Is consistent with the total quality culture

  22. Selecting and training field staff • Why is it important • How long does it take • How is it organized

  23. Example: Day 2 of interviewer training • Definition of household (and dwelling, family, etc.) • Pictorial of a sample household • Slide with an empty roster (explain case conventions, encodings, skip patterns, etc.) • Fill the roster for the sample household (need for legible handwriting, recording of ages, use of a calendar of events, etc.) • Role playing (trainer as a respondent, simulating borderline cases) • Role playing (trainees interview each other)

  24. The role of the team supervisor • Manager/administrator ("traditional" role) • Monitor completion of work • Collecting and accounting for all of the questionnaires • Paying interviewers/managing the fuel budget • Administrative functions • Sometime interviewer • Quality control • Continuous training of interviewers • Random quality checks in the field

  25. Supervision tasks • Verification of questionnaires for completeness • Completion of household roster & ID of members • Completion of all sections for all individuals • Limited internal consistency • Random re-interviews of households • Observation of interviews • Observation of anthropometrics • Supervision of data entry

  26. The paperless interview (CAPI) • The option of the future • Is used successfully by some statistical agencies for simple surveys (LFS and CPI price collection) • Recent experiments have shown that • Technology is already available(Lightweight notebooks and software development platform –both Windows based) • Can be cost-effective • No negative serious externalities • We still need to solve: • Questionnaire design • Ergonomic aspects of the interview • Interviewer training • Development of supervision procedures adapted to the new technology (voice recording, use of GPS’s, etc.)

  27. Case study: The IHSES Iraq Household Socio-Economic Survey Presenter: Shwan J Fatah – Sulaimania, KRG Stat Office • Each cluster (6 households) visited by one interviewer in a 20-day period (a wave) • Each household records food expenses in a diary for 10 days • The interviewer visits each household seven times, before during and after the 10-day diary recording period • During these visits, the interviewer • Helps with diary recording • Asks different questionnaire modules (education, heath, labor, etc.) • Checks for inconsistencies in the data collected in previous visits

  28. Case study: The IHSES Iraq Household Socio-Economic Survey (continued) • This was possible by organizing the field workers into teams, composed of • One supervisor • Three interviewers • One data entry operator • Data was entered and checked in between interviewer visits • Fieldwork concluded in January 2008 • A database is already available • Preliminary outputs expected in March 2008

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