Report on Tablet Assisted Personal Interview (TAPI) Implementation by the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development (MLFD) in Tanzania
Michael Rahija, Research Officer, GSARS Dr. Niwael Mtui, Principle Veterinarian, MLFD
1
Overview
• Background: Study and justification of using
TAPI
• Survey Implementation
• Monitoring reports and communication with
field staff
• Overview of costs
• Challenges encountered in the field
• Lessons Learned and Conclusion
2
Background
3
Background – Study Rationale
FAO, the Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Fisheries and the Tanzania National
Bureau of Statistics have been collaborating since
2011 to:
- Improve the livestock component of the
agricultural statistics system
- Facilitate the use of official statistics / statistics
methods for formulating / implementing
evidence-based policies
4
Background – Study Rationale
- Tanzania currently has one of the largest datasets
on livestock at household (farm) level throughout
Africa via the National Panel Survey)
- Ministry of Agriculture analysed the data and found
that many farmers relied on livestock, but did not
access extension services.
- Accordingly, a policy increasing access to
extension services would benefit farmers and
enhance food security.
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Background – Study Rationale
MALF agreed to invest resources to improve the
system of livestock extension.
HOW?
6
Background – Study Rationale
MALF agreed to invest resources to improve the
system of livestock extension.
1. A survey of extension officers (change agents)
2. An experiment to test alternative options to
improve their on the job performance
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Background – Study Rationale
1. A survey of extension officers (change agents)
2. An experiment to test alternative options to
improve their on the job performance (Jan 16)
TAPI
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• Timelineness and cost
• Data Quality
• Capacity development
• Choice of Survey Solutions
Background – TAPI Rationale
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Implementation
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• Headquarters at MALF and PI from
London School of Economics (LSE)
–Survey design - Translation
–Survey management
• Enumerators and field staff
–Basic tablet operations
–Questionnaire training directly on tablet
–Use of quizzes
Implementation - training
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• 5 teams of 3 enumerators and 1 supervisor
• Allocation of enumerators – Based on quiz performance
– Tech savviness
• Assignment of Field Supervisors
– Based on understanding of questionnaire
– Tech savviness
• Headquarters – MALF, Global Strategy, LSE
Implementation – Teams
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• Target population: Village Ward livestock
officers, and District Livestock Officers
• Goal: complete enumeration in Morogoro,
Iringa, and Dodoma
• Final sample: 63 DLOs and 415 VLOs
Implementation – Sample
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• Questionnaire (~150 questions for VLOs): – Personal info
– Livestock service provision and transport
– Farmer interaction
– Hierarchy
– Other income sources
– Personality measures
– Knowledge of rule, regulations, and policies
– Incentives
– The game
Implementation – Q
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Implementation – Field work
Interview locations
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Implementation – Field work
Progress by day
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Implementation – Field work
Duration
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Monitoring
& Communication
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• Daily export of paradata
• Rmarkdown for automated tabulations – Interviews by team and enumerator
– Duration of interviews
– Average interviews per enumerator
– Assignments
• Daily export of microdata and automated
checks
Monitoring
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• After report generation, mgmt at the MALF
called Supervisors
• HQ called tablet of enumerators re:
specific interviews
• Comments inside of questionnaire used to
alert enumerators of various problems
Communication
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• Information management:
– Email, 2 sim cards, IDs through CAPI software
Communication
internal.id devicename email interviewname enumerator AIRTEL card tigo MinistryLF1 MinistryLF1 [email protected] lss_inter1 ### 0687333122 0675343970 MinistryLF2 MinistryLF2 [email protected] lss_inter2 ### 0687332727 0675343971 MinistryLF3 MinistryLF3 [email protected] lss_inter3 ### 0687327582 0675433985
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Data analysis
• September 2015 data
cleaning (limited)
• October 2015: MALF
report available
• Nov 9th 2015: report
presented to the
Permanent Secretary
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Overview
of Costs
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Overview of costs of using TAPI
Item Units Total (TZS) Total (USD 17/9/15)
Samsung Galaxy 4 22 20,592,000 9,950.00
Battery chargers 22 50,000 512.00
Tablet covers 22 20,000 204.00
1 month data Tigo 22 25,000 256
1 month data Airtel 22 25,000 256
Server (Amazon – cloud) 0 0 0
Programming cost 0 0 0
Total - 23,232,000 10,820
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Challenges encountered
in the field
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• In some remote areas, it was difficult to
find a signal.
• Solution 1: Enumerators waited to
synchronize until a signal was found.
• Solution 2: Back-up paper questionnares
were provided.
Challenge - Connectivity
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• Seemingly at random, SIM cards would
become de-configured and the tablets
wouldn’t synchronize.
• Solution 1: The second SIM card was
used.
• Solution 2: Field Supervisors were trained
and provided instructions for manual re-
configuration.
Challenge – De-configuration
27
• During the first week of data collection,
enumerators recommended some
improvements to questionnaire.
• Solution 1: HQ team made changes and
conducted trouble-shooting at night. Then
field supervisors were instructed to tell
enumerators to re-synchronize. Not
Recommended!
Challenge – Questionnaire
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• The initial delivery of tablets was missing 6
tablets.
• Solution 1: Anyway, four tablets were
meant to be back-ups.
• Solution 2: Paper questionnaires provided
to some enumerators
• Solution 3: NBS loaned the project 2
tablets.
Challenge – Procurement
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Lessons Learned,
Software recommendations,
and Conclusion
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• Cost – justified in terms of data quality,
time b/t collection and analysis, and cost.
• Monitoring – Daily monitoring reports were
valuable to enhance team performance.
• Connectivity – Giving enumerators 2 SIM
cards minimized these problems.
• Training – Supervisors should be trained
on basic tablet maintenance.
Lessons Learned
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• Training – One should train enumerators
on the questionnaire directly in the tablet.
• Training – Survey Solutions can be used
by people with limited or no programming
experience.
Lessons Learned
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• Offline survey designer
• Feature to toggle between languages
• Automated generation of PAPI
questionnaire needs to be greatly
improved
• More documentation on enabling and
validation conditions.
Recommendations
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• MALF consider implementation of CAPI to
be a success.
• Preliminary results were made available
and circulated within 1.5 months.
• The expected benefits of using Survey
Solutions were realized.
• Experience to be replicated / improved
through other FAO’s policy-assistance
initiatives
Conclusion
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Thank You • For more questions,
email:
• Michael Rahija
• Dr. Niwael Mtui
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