Assuring good field workJuan Muñoz

What happens when fieldwork is poor?

• A long and frustrating process of “data cleaning” becomes unavoidable

The data loose their policy-making relevance

• Data quality is not guaranteed

The process converges (at best) to databases that are internally consistent

• The process entails a myriad of decisions, generally undocumented

Users mistrust the data

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

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

Mobile teams with fixed data entry

• Cote d’Ivoire (1984)• Peru (1985)• Ghana• Pakistan• Guinea-Conakry• Mozambique• Iraq (2006)

Composition of a field team

Supervisor Interviewers Anthropo-

metrist

Data entry

operator

The team and its tools

Supervisor Interviewers Data entryoperator

Anthropo-

metrist

Two PSUs visited in a four-week period

Alama Bamako

Regional Office

First weekAlama Bamako

Regional Office

Operator remains in Regional

Office

Rest of the team

travels to Alama

They complete

first half of questionnair

es in all selected

households

Second weekAlama Bamako

Regional Office

Operator enters first

week data from Alama

Rest of the team

travels to Bamako

They complete

first half of questionnair

es in all selected

households

Second weekAlama Bamako

Regional Office

Supervisor gives

Bamako questionnaires to DEO. DEO gives

back Alama questionnair

es with flagged

inconsistencies

Rest of the team

travels to Bamako and back

Third weekAlama Bamako

Regional Office

Operator enters first week data from Bamako

Team completes second half of

questionnaires. They correct

inconsistencies from first half

Fourth weekAlama 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

Fourth week

Regional Office

The result is a clean data set on

diskette, ready for analysis

immediately after data collection

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

• Nepal (1992 and 2001)• Argentina• Paraguay• Bangladesh (2000)

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

Regional Office

Alama

Bamako

Cocody

Team works with portable

computers and printers

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

Regional Office

Alama

Bamako

Cocody

Operator travels with the rest of the field team

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

Regional Office

Alama

Bamako

Cocody

Data entry and validation almost

immediate

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

Regional Office

Alama

Bamako

Cocody

Reduced trips to and from

Regional Office to selected PSUs

Mobile teams with integrated data entry

Regional Office

Alama

Bamako

Cocody

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

Selecting and training field staff

• Why is it important• How long does it take• How is it organized

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)

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

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

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.)

• 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

Case study: The IHSESIraq Household Socio-Economic Survey

Presenter: Shwan J Fatah – Sulaimania, KRG Stat Office

• 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

Case study: The IHSESIraq Household Socio-Economic Survey

(continued)