Statistics Sierra Leone is currently grappling with challenges that might undermine the ongoing Demographic Health Survey being carried out by 24 teams across the country.
The Director of Demographic and Social Statistics at Statistics Sierra Leone Peter Suleiman Bangura told AWOKO yesterday that they have observed with dismay some of the discrepancies in the conduct of the survey.
He said so far, only 18% of the DHS survey has been conducted after verification, they observed that there are challenges in the identification of households in the clusters.
He added that, some of the enumerators are also conducting the survey in a haphazard’s manner; so as to complete the job as soon as possible, as a result, they failed to follow some of the procedures in the conduct of the survey.
He also said that they have collected 18% data across the country, but observed that there are many flaws in the collected data and that they have planned to organize a retreat, so as to address some of the challenges in the future.
He said due to the poor performance of some of the numerators, they have so far sacked two of them with strict warning to others to improve on their work or lose half of their allowances.
The Director of Demographic and Social Statistics at Statistics Sierra Leone Peter Suleiman Bangura also said that despite several efforts in intensifying the DHS campaign, as most people do not accept to provide blood samples to be taken from by the numerators.
He said the enumerators were trained for 21 days and they also conducted a pre test survey within the Western Area.
He stated that in each cluster they are suppose to be 30 households adding that ‘we are planning a retreat so as to identify the problems with the survey and proffer solutions in the field.
He stated that “we are not collecting data at the moment because we want to solve the emanating problem from the previous survey and that we have also initiated stringent measures for the survey.”
By Saidu Bah
August 2, 2013
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