Transcript
PHIL BRIGHT: Vanuatu's the first country in the Pacific to be doing a fully automated census. We're using tablets in the field. So rather than having to collect on a paper questionnaire which is then returned to the office, entered into a data processing system that then has the control to make sure that the questionnaire has been filled in correctly by having it built in to a processing system on the tablet. This changes things quite substantially, we also have 3G sim cards in all of the tablets so the data is being synchronised whenever there is a connection.
DOMINIC GODFREY: So it is being updated live, all the data all the information is live to a central server I am taking it?
PB: That is right and I am looking at it sort of right now and we currently have 8039 households who have been entered into the server. So we started on Monday and obviously there are parts of the country where people can synchronise the data more frequently than others. And so it doesn't necessarily mean we have done exactly 8039 households it is likely to be higher than that. And some of these people will synchronise every few days rather than every few hours. The idea being that ideally every 24 hours if not, every 48 hours people are trying to move to areas where they have a connection. So they can upload their data which means we have a back up. But it also means that in terms of supervisors we have in the office. We have about 50 people here in Port Vila who are assigned as supervisors for five to six enumerators in the field and they then check all that data. Any errors they can reject the questionnaires which then get sent back to the people in the field when they next synchronise and they can fix those problems.
DG: On what grounds would they be rejected?
PB: If something doesn't make sense, if one of the questions has been filled in in-correctly it means that we have a lot more control over what is happening in the field. In the past because the data entry was then taking place in an office. Sometimes it might take six months before we are going through a particular pack of questionnaires. And that means that is has been six months since something strange is entered on a questionnaire that we then can't resolve and so straightaway it means we can follow up with an enumerator.
DG: These enumerators the people who go around and talk to the various Ni-Vanuatu about all these many census questions, how many enumerators in the field are there?
PB: There is roughly 350 tablets that are being used for the whole mini-census and about 300 of those tablets are in the field spread out across the country. And the other 50 tablets are being used by supervisors in an office.
DG: This started last Monday what is the anticipated finish date in terms of gathering all the requisite mini census data?
PB: The field work is going for three weeks and so this is coming up towards the end of our first week. So I imagine by the end of the month everything should be fairly well tied up.
