Proposal: High-frequency Phone Surveys of Households to Monitor Impact of COVID-19

The Pacific islands have, so far, escaped the worse impacts of the COVID-19 virus on the health of the people in the region, however the restrictions on international travel and both global and domestic lockdowns have caused severe economic disruption through loss of tourism, reduced remittances and trade flows, higher unemployment and increasing hardship and poverty.

There is currently a lack of reliable and timely data on the depth and breadth of the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 and its consequences. This Concept Note proposes a programme of High Frequency Phone Monitoring (HFPM) surveys of households in all Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) across the region. Such surveys would aim to gather data to provide near real-time information to assist governments and development partners to frame and evaluate suitable policy responses and mitigation measures.

The proposed HFPM surveys would involve 15-minute mobile phone call interviews to carefully selected random-sample households in each PICT using Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) methodology. The surveys would involve a total of six interviews with each selected sample household over a two-phase, twelve-month period. The sample size would be determined by total population according to the following criteria: PICTs with populations >= 100,000 sample size 2,000 HH; a sample of 1,000 HHs for PICTs with a population of <100,000 and a sample of 250 HH each for Niue and Tokelau. Wherever possible, samples would be drawn using recent census or survey sample frames, especially those where household phone numbers had been collected. In other countries random-number dialing or other sample selection would be developed in conjunction with national statistical offices (NSOs) and the Statistics for development Division (SDD) of the Pacific Community (SPC).

The full concept note can be found here.