Experiences with remote data collection in a Ghanian community

This post is authored by Supreme Asare,  MERL Specialist

The advent of COVID-19 made it challenging to administer surveys and other instruments face-to-face due to the prohibition on physical meetings. While this caught many businesses and people off guard and had a major impact on data collection, it also inspired inventive approaches for remote data collection using new and existing technology-enabled approaches. In this post I will share some lessons learned about remote data collection in rural Ghana.

In this case we has enumerators who could speak respondents’ native tongue conduct interviews to collect the required data. We found this to be a fairly successful approach in terms of the respondents’ desire to participate. Below are some key points to take into considering if running this type of  process:

Community Entry: Community entry was crucial to the data collection exercise’s effectiveness. The goal of community entry was to build friendly relationships with potential respondents through well-respected local leaders. Specifically, the Assembly Man and the community representative at the District Assembly.

Keeping community elders informed: According to tradition, authorization must first be obtained from the chief and other community leaders in Ghanaian villages before any activity may be carried out. This is not a permit in the strictest sense; it is intended to alert the chief and the tribe’s elders. It gives elders an opportunity to clarify anything they are not sure about and consider whether the activity fit with their traditions and customs. Elders in the community are also persuaded by the act of informing them to help with the data collection efforts. After being informed, community elders felt appreciated and urged community members to offer whatever assistance was required. This support was so overwhelming that it led to the announcement of the evaluation using a “gong gong,” and the elders urged whoever would be chosen to cooperate with the enumerators in order to complete the survey successfully. There was no in-person meeting with the community leaders because of COVID-19. All that was needed to get the information to the elders was a phone call through the Assembly member.,

Consent of identified respondents: The community elders urged community members to participate in the evaluation, but no respondent was forced to be involved; individual agreement was always requested. Before the COVID-19 era, it was difficult to find volunteers for in-person interviews. The primary form of occupation in this community is subsistence farming, which keeps respondents away from their homes for the entirety of the day. Additionally, household duties keep women even busier, making it difficult to meet respondents in person to conduct interviews. But in this instance, since the data collection would be done over the phone, respondents would have the flexibility to take part in the survey whenever it was convenient for them.

Data collection through phone calls: Using phone calls to gather data is not a new idea. However, due to the limitations on physical meetings, its usage for evaluation purposes became a preferred choice. Respondents were sampled in this case with the assistance of the community focal point person, who received coaching on the selection of the respondents. A test call with a couple of the respondents was then made to iron out any potential ambiguities. The call received high response rates, which can be attributable to various identified factors that are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Flexibility: The respondents found that using phone calls for data collection was a flexible choice. The entire data gathering process was more relaxed and flexible thanks to the use of phone calls to collect data remotely. The enumerators had the option to select a time that worked for both them and the respondents. Because it gave respondents flexibility to continue on with their daily activities while also answering questions through a mobile phone, this usually resulted in increased engagement in the interview session. Additionally, this removed the difficulty of traveling back and forth to meet respondents at their homes or other prearranged meeting locations. With the respondents’ permission, it was also possible to record phone calls during the calls. This reduced data entry errors since data entry could now be done more leisurely than with the previous system, which required data entry to be done immediately. Additionally, some survey participants felt more at ease sharing more details with someone on their phone than they would with someone sitting directly in front of them.

Cost/Time effectiveness: Itwas noted that the phone calls were cost-effective. The costs and dangers of conducting the interview while physically present in the community were removed by using a mobile phone. The amount of time required to travel to the community to collect data was significantly decreased with a functional mobile network. It only took a phone call to prevent a several-hours journey. Since respondents could be reached by phone, it solved the issue of not meeting them at their homes. In actuality, the expense of holding physical meetings to gather data was decreased (e.g., transportation costs, printing costs, etc.). The cost of airtime was far less than the cost of administering the questionnaire physically.

Challenges

Fatigue: Even though the phone-based data collection activity was successful, there were still some difficulties. Fatigue was the main challenge. The majority of respondents reported that they become fatigued when on the phone.

Network fluctuations: Due to a reliable mobile network being available, phone interviews were chosen. Despite this, there were observed network fluctuations that slowed down and interrupted the data collection process. In other cases, an unreliable network rendered a few of the sampled respondents unavailable.

Technical challenges: In a few cases, problems with the phones of the respondents and the enumerators slowed down the data collection process. For instance, issues with the earpiece and, occasionally, the phones all contributed to delays in data collecting.

Conclusion

Distance is no longer a barrier to data collecting data. Furthermore, it can be more convenient and has given rise to remote jobs in the field of monitoring, evaluation, research and learning. An effective community-entry plays a major role in ensuring that remote data collection facilitates the inclusion of people who are difficult to reach either socially or geographically