More than one hundred and forty enumerators and supervisors currently on training for the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2024-2025 are participating in a pilot test for the survey in certain areas in Honiara.
The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office, SINSO, organized the mock survey after more than two weeks of training which they facilitated for the enumerators at the Holy Cross Cathedral Hall in Honiara.
In this pilot test, the enumerators and their team leaders will get to experience firsthand the realities and challenges of going out in the field before the actual survey begins later this month.
They will experience working outside in the natural weather, the fatigue, how long it takes to complete the different sections in the questionnaire, and how long it will actually take them to complete interviewing a household.
They will also practice their communication skills, interpreting and asking questions to elicit good response from household members.
SINSO has been training them on the different sections of the HIES questionnaire using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI). This is the first survey where SINSO is conducting its interviews solely using CAPI and the enumerators are using tablets.
Areas for the pilot test include Mbokonavera 1, Holy Cross Cathedral, Fijian Quarter, Ports Married Quarter and Bodo area. The mock survey will conclude on Thursday 10 October 2024.
The mock survey is part of the process towards the actual survey at the end of this month when the different teams will be deployed to the nine provinces and Honiara for twelve months.
The Household Income and Expenditure Survey, HIES, 2024- 2025 is a 12-month undertaking that falls under Component 1 of the Building Capacity in Statistics and Audit, CAPSA Project, a joint project between the Solomon Islands Government and the World Bank.
