credible conversations © Ask Afrika 2012

The challenges of

quantitative data

collection in Africa

Prepared by: Dr Amelia Richards

Date: 8 July 2013

Points for discussion Culture

Language

Infrastructure

Secondary data for weighting & Lit review

Social Economic variables

Natural calamities

General considerations

Solutions

Culture

The challenges of quantitative data Collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

• Most regions of Africa, it is difficult to plan and

conduct fieldwork with uniformity: cultural and

religious beliefs

• Gender specific interviews

• Get permission from head of household/church

leader/leader

• Dress appropriately

• Age: How old are you? – rude/foreign concept

• Many sensitive issues are taboo: Income, HIV,

sexual behaviour etc.

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture

• Over-claims: new product tests higher levels of

“willingness to use products”

• Why me? Research is a very foreign concept

• Getting people to understand the need for

Research

• “Paper shy”/“Technology Shy”

• “Over-willingness to participate”: incentives

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture (continue)

Language The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Language

• Translations: Questionnaire length

• Translations: Number of languages needed

• Limited vocabulary: Insurance for example

• Positive versus Negative adjectives

• Scale differences: “I like it, I like it very much

and “I love it”?

Infrastructure The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Infrastructure

• Poor roads: Impacting on time and costs.

• Travelling: Vast distances to cover to rural

areas

• Public transportation: poor/ unreliable/

dangerous

• Supportive infrastructure: Low telephone

penetration, postal services, etc.

increase costs for back-check .

• Confidentiality of interviews

Secondary data for

Weighting & Lit review

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Secondary data for weighting & Lit review

• Lack of a sampling frame

• Difficulty to access census data

• Weighting variables

• Pressure for lower level estimates:

aggregated data to district level

• Literature review

• Weighting

Socio Economic

Variables

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Socio Economic Variables

• Difficulties establish standard measures of

social economic standards

• LSMs: There are arguments for and against

the variables used e.g. “vacuum cleaner”

• Income: Money matters are top secret -

Many census bureau’s do not capture

monthly income as a variable owing to high

refusal, inconsistency in data, difficult to

administer

Natural Calamities The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Natural Calamities

• Torrential rains: cutting off certain districts/areas

• Insecurity in certain regions

• Drought/starvation: Especially affecting the

nomadic tribes, sense of well-being, can you

interview a hungry man on which flavour of juice

he prefers?

• Outbreaks of contagious disease: impacts on

respondents and fieldworkers.

• Tribal tension

General Considerations The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Culture The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

General Considerations

• Public strikes

• Power cuts in Africa

• Women & money

• Lack of research expertise and capacity

within local research companies and often

low quality standards in place

• Some of the secondary sources do not

factor in double counts, and this could be a

big factor amongst the “elite banked” who

hold multiple accounts

• Data is not always in the public domain “top

secret”

• Focus is rarely cross- boarder yet a lot of

Africa Countries have regional players

Solutions The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Solutions • Be aware of cultural/language differences

• Localise questionnaires / country specific

• Consider infrastructure upfront (costing and

project plan phase)

• Monitor political and social situations closely

• Do not only rely upon government statistics;

NGOs (e.g. IRC) have excellent reports on

social movements and situations

• Contact NGOs who have completed

research in the area. Find out who they

worked with and difficulties involved

The challenges of quantitative data collection in Africa

Solutions (continue)

• However well you have chosen your

research methodologies and targeted your

respondents, your master plan can collapse

when handed over to the wrong fieldwork

partner - Reliable/Trusted field partner

• Be on the ground