Three OECS Member States have begun the transition to Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI), a data collection method expected to improve efficiency and access to statistical information.
The OECS Commission, under the Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) Project, funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), is supporting Member States with the transition from paper-based to CAPI method for data collection.
The Enhanced CPA project is dedicated to distributing one hundred tablets among OECS Members States, to be used for household surveys such as the labour force survey.
Dr. Gale Archibald, Head of the Statistical Services Unit, Economic Affairs and Regional Integration Division at the OECS Commission, said the use of the tablets will modernise the process of data collection.
Roll out of Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) continues in the OECS
"CAPI helps to reduce the time between data collection and data dissemination. It offers the ability to validate the data in real time and to make corrections throughout the process. The sooner data are available to the public, the sooner they can put them to a variety of uses," Dr. Archibald said.
The national statistical office (NSO) in Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have already begun to use the tablets for their survey fieldwork. Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis are expected to follow, while Dominica and the British Virgin Islands will be delayed due to the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Transitioning to CAPI includes training in Survey Solutions – the World Bank-created tool for designing electronic questionnaires for CAPI. The OECS NSOs received this training in Survey Solutions which was facilitated and sponsored by the World Bank.