Kiribati is the first country in the Pacific region to conduct a MICS6 survey, the results of which are expected to drive key changes in Kiribati’s development planning and program implementation. The survey is key to collecting up to date data on the well-being of children in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals, data which remains comparatively scarce in this country.
The survey, “Kiribati Social Development Indicator Survey 2018-19,” has a sample size of 3,280 households in 164 clusters (110 rural and 54 urban clusters), spanning 21 out of the 23 habited islands. Designed to be representative at the national level, the survey includes rural and urban populations and each of the five island groups: South Tarawa, Northern Gilbert, Central Gilbert, Southern Gilbert and Line & Phoenix Group.
Fieldwork began on 1 November 2018 and is expected to end in January 2019. The survey marks the first time the country is collecting data using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) on hand-held tablets. This provides Kiribiti with an innovative technology to improve data quality in the MICS and produce results rapidly following the survey. The CAPI approach can also be adopted into other surveys and census implementation.
Survey implementation in Kiribati, however, is a challenge due to the geographical layout of the country and the poor infrastructure. Accessibility to some of the islands is low and the survey teams will travel by various modes of transportation, including boats and/or planes, to reach households for interviews. Further, the lack of internet connectivity on some islands will make it challenging for the central office to monitor field-work quality remotely, despite using CAPI. To ensure that quality implementation is done, survey managers are carefully planning journeys to different islands and are storing data locally until they can connect to the internet to send data to the central office. In the meantime, survey supervisors are engaged in rigorous checking of field-work and feedback to interviewers as it occurs. Final results from the survey are expected in June/July 2019.