4.2 Data collection methods: Getting Priorities and Information From the Public

Experience shows that using one or more of the following methods for collecting data generates the most useful results. Your target audience and feedback process will influence the best methods for your feedback loop:

Interviews (called key informant interviews or KIIs) can include consultations with relevant personnel within the local authority, local cultural or traditional leaders, community activists or other relevant stakeholders.
- Individual interviews may be useful, especially as your team begins planning data collection. For example, you can schedule interviews with community leaders or highly engaged residents as an initial source of suggestions for how best to design your data collection, what questions to ask or how best to reach a certain population in the community. These interviews can also be used to supplement or better understand feedback as it begins to trickle in.

Focus group discussions (FGDs) or group interviews are a spectrum of more targeted outreach to a particular group: they can be randomized, rigorous research efforts with strict methodologies and trained facilitators, or they can be meetings where interested participants can provide their thoughts less formally. Groups can also be organized around identity characteristics to support open discussions (such as a women-only focus group or a discussion with people who speak a common minority language). FGDs or group interviews can also be used at the start of your data collection efforts to support planning – such as testing questions or questionnaires to make sure respondents can easily understand them or to suggest improvements – or at the end of the process to gather greater detail on priorities (see Step 7 on dialogue). Note that rigorous focus groups may involve specific and strict procedures for selecting participants, arranging the environment and setting for the FGD, and special facilitator training.

Read more in Annex IX: Surveys.

For all of these methods, determining the most appropriate sample size and the most optimal means of identifying the participants that will comprise the sample are important decisions. Each data collection method – surveys, KIIs or FGDs – carries with it a particular approach and set of key considerations concerning sample size and selection. For focus groups, for example, the size of an individual group should not be more than 8–10 people maximum to ensure free discussion. Depending on the population parameters you want to engage with, this group size limitation may require holding several different focus groups – potentially each with different types of participants (such as women adults, men adults, young women, young men, people with mixed genders, language groups and migrants) to ensure that your overall data is robust and representative. For surveys, on the other hand, your sample size should be large enough to effectively represent your target populations, which requires you to consider the overall population of your community. In addition, you must also consider the composition of your sample, which will depend on how homogeneous or heterogenous your community is in terms of identity characteristics and other factors. For more information on sample determinations for each method type, see Annex VII: Key Informant Interviews, Annex VIII: Focus Groups, and Annex IX: Surveys.

Beyond this, when planning your preferred or optimal data collection method(s), there is a range of issues to consider to ensure that your data is robust and usable for your intended purpose, that your team’s time and resources are used efficiently, and that the community members you engage with understand the issues they are being asked to comment on, in what way, and for what reasons. (See Section 4.4 for more on inclusion, access, accommodation and safety).

Finally, as indicated earlier, be prepared for the fact that your data collection plans may need to change as you begin to engage with the public, other staff within the local authority, or other stakeholders. Be flexible. You may realize you need additional resources or information and so may need to adapt your outreach efforts to reflect this, either by reducing the scope of a survey or adding interviews. For a detailed overview of how, why and in what ways to use survey, FGD or KII data collection methods, with examples and key considerations to assist your decision-making planning, see Annex X: When to Use KIIs, FGs and Surveys.

If you want to conduct a door-to-door canvassing campaign but lack the time or resources to return to each household later, consider introducing options for residents to return the surveys themselves, either online or in person.

Direct residents to submit the survey online: By including a scannable code (such as a quick-response [QR] code) or URL link to an online version of the same survey, you can remove the step of returning to the resident’s house. If you are not rigorously sampling, you can also encourage the resident to share this link with their neighbors or others living in the same house.
Direct residents to submit the survey via mail or to a drop box: When canvassing, simply give the residents the option to return the survey in the mail (you should give them a pre-addressed and prepaid envelope along with the survey). Note: This will cost the municipality the rate for local postage multiplied by the number of surveys. Ensuring that residents have a pre-addressed and prepaid envelope is crucial to ensuring the return process is of no cost to them. Alternatively, you can ask the resident to return the survey to a specified drop box location (for example, in city hall, at the local community center, or at another convenient and predetermined location).
Allow residents to complete the survey on the spot: This is an option if the survey is especially simple. For example, if it is one question, for example, “Which of the following five issues matters most to you?” Then, residents do not need to keep the survey for a long time. However, this is not always recommended because it can introduce bias into responses, especially if the resident feels pressured or the presence of a local official may encourage a certain response. Further, this is not a recommended approach in Moldova’s context, as returning to each house to collect surveys after a week is considered a demonstration of the local officials’ long-term commitment to listen to residents.

For all options, you must clearly specify when the survey needs to be returned (giving a specific deadline).

Methods to increase participant response to and return of surveys

Relying on respondents to submit (online, via mail or via drop box) limits the team’s ability to quickly collect surveys as you need to wait for surveys to trickle in from these sources. If this is your approach, you should consider some tactics that may increase response rates:

Have clear instructions for the return of the survey: Clearly indicate on the survey or a separate letter attached to the survey the date that the survey must be submitted and how it can be submitted.
Send individual reminders: If sampling, give each survey an ID number to track it (see Annex IX: Surveys for more information on sampling). As surveys come in, record their numbers – this will allow your team to identify which addresses or individuals require follow-up; if these numbers are small enough, following up in person or through another round of canvassing might be feasible. If your sampling is based on clusters (men and women, certain neighborhoods, etc.), then you can also see whether you need to redouble efforts among particular respondents, either by sending out a new round of surveys or through convenience sampling in a specific neighborhood.
Send reminders to all respondents via phone, SMS text message, post or regular media channels: Leverage the expertise and skills of your communications team member to conduct outreach and issue reminders to residents that the survey is closing, and repeat instructions to submit their surveys.