Roll out of Computer Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) continues in the OECS
OECS Media Release
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 the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (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 and Multi-Indicator Cluster surveys. Support for the initiative includes the purchase of tablets, laptops and desktops computers.
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.
"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 Offices (NSOs) of Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), Dominica, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis are expected to transition to CAPI during the latter part of this year.
Grenada, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have already begun use of the tablets in the field. The transition was delayed in Dominica and the BVIs due to the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
The NSOs of the OECS region received training in Survey Solutions – the World Bank-created tool for designing electronic questionnaires for CAPI. The Survey Solutions training was facilitated and sponsored by the World Bank.
