The Rapid Household Survey Handbook Section I: Introduction and General Principles
Figure M1.2: Road Map to a Valid Rapid Survey Elements of a Survey Preparing for the Survey— Key Questions
Training Staff to Conduct the Survey
Carrying out the Field Work
Using Survey Results
Why should I do a survey
Link to program objectives formative, process, summative evaluation
Core Team
Overall responsibility for survey implementation
Data tabulation
Hand or computer
Whom should I survey
Link to program objectives – “target” population and key respondents
Super-visors/ Inter-viewers
Directly responsible for information collection
Data analysis (group)
Apply analysis plan
What should I ask them
Question design or (better) adaptation, translation, data entry forms, analysis plan
Data Entry Staff
Manages -enters & Checks data
Decision making and reports
Link back to “why”
How do I find respondents
Sample: size and approach: community, household, respondent (30 cluster/LQAS)
Who will carry it out
Survey team: coordinator, core team, supervisors, data entry interviewers, drivers
How much will it cost
All logistical issues – cost permissions, materials, etc.
Planning a Rapid Health Survey The foregoing lays out a brief summary of what a rapid (population-based) survey is for. Of course, surveying is not as simple as merely going out and talking to people if one is concerned with using a subset of the population to draw conclusions about the whole. Careful preparation is necessary to ensure that the approach to asking questions is standardized (the same for everyone), that rigorous rules are applied to sampling (selecting the subset), and that everyone involved has a clear sense of his or her role. This is why, for rapid surveys, some of the most important and time-consuming work is done well before the survey (see the Tale of the Humpty Dumpty Survey box, below). After the initial preparation, one must carefully train all field workers who will ask the questions, as well as those who oversee their work. Of course, conducting the survey itself is labor intensive, but this
work is then followed by additional, and critical work to tabulate, analyze and draw conclusions of the data generated by asking questions. Thus, the actual fieldbased work of a survey is just one part of a broader set of activities. Figure M1.2 lays this out in terms of four broad areas, each of which requires careful planning: 1) Preparing for the survey; 2) Training staff to conduct the survey; 3) Carrying out the field work of the survey and; 4) Using the survey results. The remainder of this module covers all elements of this diagram to lay out an overall understanding of what is required to conduct a rapid survey. However, it is important to note that each of these elements represents broad areas for which much detail exists but cannot be provided in this brief manual. Therefore, this introduction will briefly summarize major issues
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