By Amin Kef Sesay
On Monday 8th June 2020 Stats SL, with support from the World Bank, commenced training of enumerators and supervisors for the Sierra Leone Covid1-19 Impact Monitoring Survey (SL-CIMS).
The survey implemented by Stats SL and funded by the World Bank hopes to provide the Government of Sierra Leone and the International community with timely, policy-relevant information regarding knowledge of, responses to and the socio-economic impacts of Covid-19 and related restrictions in Sierra Leone.
In particular, the survey will give information to effectively design, target and evaluate the policy interventions envisaged under the Quick Action Economic Response Program (QAERP) to face the Covid-19 challenge.
The survey which will be conducted via mobile phone as opposed to the conventional face- to – face interview, will let enumerators call households and ask questions bearing on the impact Covid has had on their livelihoods and following each completed interview, each household will be compensated in-kind, in the form of mobile airtime top up/ credit
The households were determined by a random sample of currently active mobile phone numbers from those that had been interviewed from the 2018 round of the Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS).
In his keynote address at the opening of the training, the Deputy Statistician General, Andrew Bob Johnny, stated that the Covid-19 impact monitoring survey is a similar survey to the Annual Economic Survey of Enterprises (AESE), which was done using survey solutions.
He intimated all present that the enumerators who did very well during AESE are the ones that have been selected this time to work with Stats SL on the survey. He admonished all participants to uphold the integrity of the institution and their own personal integrity as well, because any slight falsification of the data will be discovered and punished heavily.
The Deputy Statistician General explained that all phone calls on the distributed phones lines, will be registered and monitored. The DSG further warned participants that monitoring of field activities will be done very vigorously, and any culprit caught, will forfeit their payment and subsequently turned over to the police for criminal investigation.
After the launch, participants were trained on how to use the training equipment, including the tablets and the phone in conjunction with the training manual. A general training was conducted and hands-on training was later conducted for 108 enumerators and 18 supervisors; amounting to a total 126 who will conduct the survey, that is due to commence on Monday the 15th June, 2020 and lasting for 19 days.
Also in attendance at the launch were The Director of Communication of Stats SL, Samuel Ansumana, The Technical Assistant to the Statistician General and his Deputy, Dr Mohamed Korjie, The Director of National Accounts and Economic Statistics Division, Mwaluma Andrew Gegbe, The Director of Demographic, Health and Social Statistics Division, Sonnia Jabbi and the Senior Human Resources Manager, Aboud John George.
