Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) Surveys in use in the OECS

The OECS Commission has partnered with the Central Statistics Office in Saint Lucia to conduct training in Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) Surveys for the BVI's, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis, which is aimed at making the data collection process much easier when statisticians visit households.

The innovative training which is taking place at the Central Statistics Office, Saint Lucia from the 29th May - 2nd June uses the Survey Solutions technology developed by the World Bank and seeks to enhance skills so that the beneficiary National Statistical Offices (NSOs) are prepared for their respective household CAPI surveys.

The transition from paper-based to CAPI surveys will modernise the process of data collection; making data processing more efficient, improving data quality and significantly minimising production costs. CAPI also helps to speed up data dissemination.

The OECS Commission, through the Living Standards Measurement Committee (LSMC), agreed to introduce CAPI as the primary means of data collection.  This commitment entails a gradual shift from the traditional paper and pencil interviews (PAPI) to computer-based data collection for the measurement of living standards.

The training was organised by the OECS Commission’s Statistical Services Unit under the Enhanced Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) Project and funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building.