A day workshop on Survey Process Design was held on 16 January 2019 at Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority Guest House, Camp, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Lack of proper survey process design has been recognised as important indicator of poor data quality, since it introduces bias in the survey results and affects decision makers in their decisions for national planning. The workshop was organised, brought together the stake holders in survey methodology and survey process design was extensively discussed to enhance survey process for decision makers. More than 180 participants attended the workshop from various establishments like universities, polytechnics, NAFDAC, the National Bureau of Statistics, National Population Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance.
Workshop objectives
The objectives of the workshop were to ensure that the participants have a better understanding of household indicators, survey process manual, household listing and mapping, survey instruments and sampling.
The workshop comprised talks, questions and discussions.
Two speakers were invited. Prof GN Amahia from the Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Mr RA Mojoyinola from the National Population Commission, Ibadan, Nigeria. Prof Amahia discussed extensively on setting objectives for a survey, designing a survey process in view of household survey, ingredients and requirements for survey process, choosing a scope for survey, factors influencing the choice of a domain and choosing a reporting domain in respect of survey objective. Mr Mojoyinola based his discussion on good household listing requirements, identification and recruitment of good listing personnel, enumeration area definition, demarcation of boundary and interpreting maps.
There were two sections for questions, answers and discussion. During this period, there was a balance of the classroom experience and field experience.
It was suggested that this kind of workshop be organised periodically so as to enhance the data quality for decision makers.
During the registration, over 300 people subscribed, but 200 participants were invited. There was a suggestion to repeat this workshop for those that were kept on the waiting list.
Follow up action plan to contribute further to the workshop objectives
We plan to contribute further to the workshop objectives by organising stakeholders meeting to establish networking and collaboration between people in academic and those on the field and we pray to get additional funding from the International Association of Survey Statisticians.
The workshop had served as an eye-opener to Nigerian statisticians and it has created template to build on for those in academic and those in the industries.
Acknowledgements of collaborations and sponsors
We sincerely appreciate the International Association of Survey Statistician for the full funding provided for this workshop. We also acknowledged the Royal Statistical Society Nigeria Local Group, the Department of Statistics, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria and the Nigerian Statistical Association Ogun State, Chapter for their collaboration in organising the workshop.