Government officials and 50x2030 team at a workshop
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Enhancing Agricultural Data Collection in Sierra Leone: Training for the Development of Survey Tools

At the start of May 2024, the 50x2030 Initiative traveled to Sierra Leone to conduct a hands-on training focused on building capacity in designing and using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) survey tools using CSPro. This training aimed to provide national experts from Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFS) with the skills and tools to design survey questionnaires using the CAPI data collection methodology.

The integration of technologies in agricultural surveys offers a multitude of benefits, including cost reduction, improved data quality and enhanced analytics capabilities. The use of CAPI tailored for agricultural surveys helps streamline data collection processes by enabling enumerators to input, validate and transmit data directly from the field using tablets while concurrently ensuring data accuracy and integrity. For these reasons, building national capacities on the use of technology for a more efficient survey implementation is an important component of the technical support provided by the 50x2030 Initiative.

This recent training builds upon the ongoing partnership between the 50x2030 Initiative and the country. 50x2030 works in close collaboration with SSL and MAFS to strengthen and build upon the existing agricultural data collection system. In this context, the Data Production component of the 50x2030 Initiative, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), provides technical assistance in setting up all aspects related to the preparation and implementation of the national agricultural survey, in particular the introduction of the Production, Methods and Environment (PME) module.

Based on the acquired skills, participants will design the 2024 annual agricultural questionnaire (PME module) for both post-planting and post-harvest surveys. They will address issues related to CAPI during data collection, monitor data synchronization and implement data quality measures using tools provided during training.

In particular, the training prioritized the following actions:

  • Design Data Entry Program in CSPro with integrating the CAPI elements based on Paper Version of a questionnaire;
  • Integrate skips, data validation and consistency check in a CSPro CAPI program
  • Create an application menu in CSPro and handle external data files
  • Configure data synchronization and data exchange between devices
  • Deploy CAPI programs on Android tablets, and manage programs updates
  • Data viewing and export using CSPro Data Viewer
  • Write data processing programs with CSPro

 

Learn more about the 50x2030’s partnership with Sierra Leone here.