Data Collection during the Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities

Data collection in countries of the Global South has been dominated by face-to-face interviews. Absence of sampling frame, poor quality of telephone and internet connectivity and absence of civil registration systems has led to a reliance on household surveys as the primary mode for obtaining demographic data. Spreading pandemic has blocked this avenue for gathering data precisely at a time when data are most needed. Researchers have responded by undertaking telephone surveys, video interviews and drawing samples via Facebook. This panel brings together researchers working in diverse geographies to discuss new modes of data collection, the opportunities they offer and the ethical challenges they pose, as researchers try to work with respondents living under highly stressful conditions.

Tuesday, August 18 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ET

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Panelists include:

• Suneeta Krishnan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Innovations to Preserve Ethics and Enhance Validity of Research in the Context of COVID-19”
• Stéphane Helleringer, Johns Hopkins University. “Tracking excess mortality in countries with limited death registration: the role of mobile phone surveys”
• Hans-Peter Kohler, University of Pennsylvania. “Surviving an Epidemic: Covid-19 Phone Surveys in the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health”
• Leticia Marteleto, University of Texas Austin. “Using Multiple Modes of Data Collection during the Pandemic: the Decode Project in Brazil”
• Manoj Mohanan (Duke University) and Kaushik Krishnan (Center for Monitoring Indian Economy). “Leveraging ongoing panel surveys to conduct prevalence studies of COVID: lessons from collaborating with the CMIE panel in Karnataka”
• Frauke Kreuter (University of Maryland and University of Manneheim), Katherine Morris and Kelsey Mulcahay (Facebook). “Facebook COVID Symptom Survey”

Moderator and organizer: Sonalde Desai, University of Maryland College Park
Presented by the PAA International Outreach Committee.
This webinar will be streamed and saved on PAA's YouTube channel.

COVID Webinar Series is organized by Eileen Crimmins, Sara Curran, Jenn Dowd, Pam Herd, and Giovanna Merli.