Publication:
Conducting Rapid Response Phone Surveys to Fill Data Gaps

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (427.67 KB)
384 downloads
English Text (21.22 KB)
26 downloads
Published
2020-07
ISSN
Date
2020-08-10
Editor(s)
Abstract
To respond effectively to crises, policy makers need reliable, timely evidence on its negative effects and transmission channels. Despite limitations compared to face-to-face surveys, rapid response phone surveys (RRPS) are a cost-effective, flexible method to quickly fill data gaps. This note gives an overview of main considerations when setting up a RRPS. It also illustrates how surveyors have used this tool to inform design of interventions during Ebola and famine crises. The World Bank is currently using RRPSs to track the impact of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in more than 100 countries.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Delius, Antonia; Himelein, Kristen; Pape, Utz Johann. 2020. Conducting Rapid Response Phone Surveys to Fill Data Gaps. Poverty and Equity Notes;No. 29. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34300 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Estimating Poverty in the Absence of Consumption Data : The Case of Liberia
    (World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09) Graham, Errol; Dabalen, Andrew; Himelein, Kristen; Mungai, Rose
    In much of the developing world, the demand for high frequency quality household data for poverty monitoring and program design far outstrips the capacity of the statistics bureau to provide such data. In these environments, all available data sources must be leveraged. Most surveys, however, do not collect the detailed consumption data necessary to construct aggregates and poverty lines to measure poverty directly. This paper benefits from a shared listing exercise for two large-scale national household surveys conducted in Liberia in 2007 to explore alternative methodologies to estimate poverty indirectly. The first is an asset-based model that is commonly used in Demographic and Health Surveys. The second is a survey-to-survey imputation that makes use of small area estimation techniques. In addition to a standard base model, separate models are estimated for urban and rural areas and an expanded model that includes climatic variables. Special attention is paid to the inclusion of cell phones, with implications for other assets whose cost and availability may be changing rapidly. The results demonstrate substantial limitations with asset-based indexes, but also leave questions as to the accuracy and stability of imputation models.
  • Publication
    Second-Stage Sampling for Conflict Areas
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-03) Himelein, Kristen; Eckman, Stephanie; Murray, Siobhan; Bauer, Johannes
    The collection of survey data from war zones or other unstable security situations is vulnerable to error because conflict often limits the implementation options. Although there are elevated risks throughout the process, this paper focuses specifically on challenges to frame construction and sample selection. The paper uses simulations based on data from the Mogadishu High Frequency Survey Pilot to examine the implications of the choice of second-stage selection methodology on bias and variance. Among the other findings, the simulations show the bias introduced by a random walk design leads to the underestimation of the poverty headcount by more than 10 percent. The paper also discusses the experience of the authors in the time required and technical complexity of the associated back-office preparation work and weight calculations for each method. Finally, as the simulations assume perfect implementation of the design, the paper also discusses practicality, including the ease of implementation and options for remote verification, and outlines areas for future research and pilot testing.
  • Publication
    Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 in Kenya
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06) Pape, Utz Johann; Delius, Antonia; Khandelwal, Ritika; Gupta, Rhea
    The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a strong impact on the livelihoods of Kenyan households, even though employment and income levels are recovering. The second lockdown resulted in another surge in food insecurity. While access to education worsened again due to renewed school closures, health services remained widely accessible to the population. Kenyans are well informed about the preventive measures to avoid COVID-19 infections, and compliance with hygiene measures against the virus increased again during the second lockdown. The majority of Kenyans will be willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine, but many are concerned about potential side effects. One-half of the Kenyan population is anxious due to the fear of contracting COVID-19 and potential employment losses. This brief summarizes the key results of the Kenya COVID-19 rapid response phone survey (RRPS) tracking the socioeconomic impacts of the crisis from May 2020 to June 2021.
  • Publication
    Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Market Outcomes of Refugees and Nationals in Kenya
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-03-07) Vintar, Mirko; Beltramo, Theresa Parrish; Delius, Antonia Johanna Sophie; Egger, Dennis Timo; Pape, Utz Johann
    This paper investigates the labor market outcomes for refugee and urban national communities in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic, using five waves of a novel high-frequency phone survey collected between May 2020 and June 2021. Even after conditioning on age, gender, educational attainment, and area of living, only 32 percent of refugees were employed in February 2020 compared with 63 percent of nationals. With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, the share of employed for both refugees and nationals fell by around 36 percent, such that in May-June 2020, only 21 percent of refugees were still employed compared with 40 percent of nationals. Using a panel setup with wave and location fixed effects, the analysis finds that the recovery in the share of employed, hours worked, and household incomes was slower and often stagnant for refugees compared with the recovery of nationals. These differences cannot be explained by demographic factors, living in an urban or camp environment, having been employed previously, or sectoral choice, suggesting that a third, unobservable “refugee factor” inhibits refugees’ recovery after a major shock and aggravates preexisting vulnerabilities.
  • Publication
    Collecting High-Frequency Data Using Mobile Phones : Do Timely Data Lead to Accountability?
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Croke, Kevin; Dabalen, Andrew; Demombynes, Gabriel; Giugale, Marcelo; Hoogeveen, Johannes
    As mobile phone ownership rates have risen dramatically in Africa, there has been increased interest in using mobile telephones as a data collection platform. This note draws on two largely successful pilot projects in Tanzania and South Sudan that used mobile phones for high-frequency data collection. Data were collected on a wide range of topics and in a manner that was cost-effective, flexible, and rapid. Once households were included in the survey, they tended to stick with it: respondent fatigue has not been a major issue. While attrition and nonresponse have been challenges in the Tanzania survey, these were due to design flaws in that particular survey, challenges that can be avoided in future similar projects. Ensuring use of the data to demand better service delivery and policy decisions turned out to be as challenging as collecting the high-quality data. Experiences in Tanzania suggest that good data can be translated into public accountability, but also demonstrate that just putting data out in the public domain is not enough. This note discusses lessons learned and offers suggestions for future applications of mobile phone surveys in developing countries, such as those planned for the World Bank's "Listening to Africa" initiative.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Business Ready 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03) World Bank
    Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.
  • Publication
    Accelerating Investment: Challenges and Policies
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-19) Adarov, Amat (editor)
    Investment is the engine that expands productive capacity, modernizes infrastructure, creates jobs, and drives progress toward development and climate goals. Yet developing economies face an investment shortfall of historic proportions. Even as development needs rise, investment growth has slowed to about half its pace in the 2000s. Public investment alone cannot fill this gap. Private investment must play the leading role in reigniting growth, creating jobs, and supporting the transition to a more sustainable and resilient future. This book presents the World Bank’s most comprehensive assessment of investment in emerging and developing economies. It examines why investment matters, why it has stalled, and what it will take to revive it. The analysis highlights that countries that have successfully triggered investment booms combined sound macroeconomic frameworks with reforms that improved the business climate, strengthened governance, and mobilized private capital. History shows that when investment surges, economies grow faster, job creation accelerates, and poverty declines more rapidly. Reversing today’s slowdown is within reach — through credible fiscal and monetary policies, well-targeted public investment that attracts private capital, and stronger international cooperation to mobilize finance at scale. Reigniting investment is not just a national priority — it is a global imperative.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23) Belacin, Matias; Iacovone, Leonardo; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy
    Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.