Objective of Collecting Information

1. Indicators vs. QuestionsEvents vs. RatesRate is events in a defined group in a limited time periodRare events require special methods;How you collect often trumps what you collect (mortality)

2. Objective of Collecting Information Summarize and represent the responses of people: common views and variations Drivers and groupings of those responses

3. One Method Cannot get a Fair and Full Representation of a Community’s Voice • Opinion vs Behavior • Multiple Ways to Ask • What matters is What changes over time What differences exist between subgroups • What stays the same when everything else changes • What differences are bigger than the imprecision we have in measuring them

4. How to seek information • Systematic survey at point of use Water hole chat, commercial outlet sales record • Meeting with community leaders • ‘Snowball’ from one person to the next • Remote sensing (new technologies) • Ushidi vs telecom

5. To Represent The Whole • Random – Simplest, but often not the Best • If not have a list of all members of community imitate it with Cluster in the last (geographic) stage • If population not residential , not equal chance of being included (if 50% of people on the move, random is a joke) • Then ‘random’ often false representivity

6. Systematic or Purposive Sample • Seek most affected areas • Find most affected and less affected groups (areas) • Summarize before and after, high and low impact groups • Represent the range of needs, not the average of the community • Identify strata of key subgroups

7. Strongest Information From Triangulation • Consistency of information across areas and levels of information collection • Household and community interviews • Opinions and quantitative representations

8. Sensitivity • Representivity • Valid • Reliable (repeatable)