Background
The Bureau of the Committee has identified data governance, non-traditional data sources, including big data, and inclusive policymaking and its impact on national statistical systems (including data literacy) as emerging priority issues for the region. More and more requests are coming to national statistical offices to conduct surveys that will provide results in almost near real-time and be nationally representative. Household surveys over the phone conducted by National Statistical Offices and supported by UNICEF and World Bank represent non-traditional data sources that provide nationally representative data, with findings usually disaggregated by area of residence, age, sex, education, wealth quantiles, and other relevant stratifiers. This side event will contribute to the Committee on Statistics agenda by providing an insight into the methodologies and implementation of surveys conducted over the phone, its advantages, and limitation. The event will also contribute to capacity building and strengthening national statistical systems.
Scope:
The scope of the side event was to present the methodologies of conducting surveys over the phone in detail and experiences from the countries where surveys were successfully conducted. The methodology was presented by representatives of UNICEF and the World Bank, while examples for implementation was presented by representatives of the National Statistical Offices from Mongolia and Nigeria (tentatively). The presentation included the main features of MICS Plus, supported by UNICEF, and High-frequency phone surveys supported by the World Bank. The approaches and methodologies that was presented can be used for numerous purposes, such as collecting indicators with high frequency and seasonal changes, for emerging issues such as crisis monitoring, measuring program coverage, testing new questions, and opinion polling. Primarily, MICS Plus surveys are designed to collect data and changes on the situation of children, families, and households on a frequent basis and with near real-time reporting, while World Bank surveys are designed to track the socio-economics impact of Covid-19 and economic shocks. All relevant documents as well as survey results, can be found on MICS Plus and World Bank web pages
Key questions to be discussed in the side event:
- The methodology of conducting household surveys over the phone - the non-traditional data source becoming traditional data sources?
- The significance of surveys conducted over the phone in national statistical systems in a rapidly changing world
- How do real-time reporting of phone survey results contribute to inclusive policy and decision-making and its impact on national statistical systems - challenges and benefits
- Ethics, equity, and inclusion in surveys conducted over the phone.
