Three‐country Experiment on Modes of Data Collection

The GGP carried out its first round of data collection during the period 2002‐2012. During this period of total of 20 countries collected data. This has resulted in many papers and has supported major advances in knowledge in population and family dynamics. However, behind this scientific excellence, there were several technical challenges. The first one is that a non‐centralized approach was used. What this means is that although there was a centrally approved questionnaire (approved by the GGP consortium board), there was little collaboration between the central hub and national teams in implementing the survey. There were three consequences of this approach: (1) there variations in how the data was collected: some countries opting for pen and paper and others for CAPI; (2) there were large country variations in compliance to the central questionnaire (resulting in incomparability and time‐consuming postharmonisation); and (3) there was a long period of time between the end of the data collection and the release of the data file to users. The second challenge is that during the period 2002‐2012, the context itself of survey data collection has changed. Not only have the response rates been largely declining in many countries, but moreover the actual cost of carrying out face‐to‐face surveys has increased steeply. These two changes have threatened the sustainability of conventional survey data collection. In preparing for the new round of data collection in 2020, the GGP has invested in various pilots to address these two technical challenges: (1) it has tested a more centralized mode of data collection as well as various pieces of software to standardize fieldwork operation and speed up data processing; and (2) it has tested the feasibility of online data collection, to reduce the cost of surveys and hopefully to increase the response rates. These two technical options were tested as part of a three‐country experiment. This document reports on the experiment and its main findings. The three countries chosen for the experiment were selected to deliberately reflect some of the most challenging fieldwork environments for face to face data collection. This report illustrates that, whilst there are many significant challenges involved in centralizing data collection and conducting online data collection, the existing technical and methodological design of the GGP is feasible. It also outlines the limitations to these approaches and mitigation measures in countries which have specific, problematic conditions.