The South Sudan Experimental Phone Survey: Experiences and Lessons Gabriel Demombynes April Workshop on “More Frequent, More Timely & More Comparable Data for Better Results”

Outline Why? How? What Worked? What Didn’t Work? Lessons for the Future

Why? To see if it would work The PA A data generating platform

How? Phase I Phones delivered to 1000 households Representative sample of 10 state capitals (urban only, in a rural country) Delivery done by Southern Sudan Centre for Census, Statistics and Evaluation in Oct 2010

Some key features of delivery Pilot conducted in 2 towns in July 2010 Agreement letter Calendar 2 types of phones: Nokia vs. solar 2 levels of airtime credit: 5 vs. 10 SDG WB supervision in half of locations Airtime lottery Backup phone number collected Choice of language: Juba Arabic, Dinka, Nuer, English Attempt to get age, gender diversity

July 2010 Pilot

November 2010 Phase 1

Phase II: December 2010-March 2011 Calls made monthly by Horizon Contact Center, Nairobi-based call center Callers: South Sudanese living in Nairobi “Core” questions from Afrobarometer “Special” questions asked each month minute interview

Figure 1: Views on the Referendum on the Independence of Southern Sudan

Figure 3: Responses to “Looking back, how do you rate the following compared to twelve months ago: Your living conditions?“

Figure 5: Responses to “Looking ahead, do you expect the following to be better or worse: Your living condition in twelve months time?”

Figure 8: Responses to “In the last year, have you or anybody in your family gone without enough food?”

Figure 10: Responses to “Over the past year, how often, if ever have you or anyone in your family been physically attacked?”

Figure 11: Responses to “Over the past year, how often, if ever, have you or anyone in your family had something stolen from your house?”

What Worked Well Outsourcing major work with coordination by Bank consultant Arrangement with South Sudan stats office Contract with call center

What Didn’t Work Well Timing of Airtime Transfers High-frequency coordination of payments with Juba and Khartoum offices

Attrition Over Time Percentages of Households Completing The Interview Each Month

Conclusions Outsourcing components, with WB management, worked well Lower attrition, lower cost in places with higher cell phone ownership, e.g. Kenya More analysis on substance and attrition to come