As governments, international donors, researchers, and implementers continue to face challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, having up-to-date data is critical for decision-making. Face-to-face surveys are largely not feasible now, so phone surveys have emerged as a powerful tool to collect data quickly and cost-effectively across multiple countries. These surveys can help us understand people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward COVID-19, as well as the effect the pandemic is having on employment, education, health, and migration.

While phone surveys are feasible, cost-effective, and fast, they also have their own set of challenges related to sampling, coverage, questionnaire design, data collection, and representativeness.

An exemplary panel of researchers and experts from different development and humanitarian organizations shared emerging best practices for cross-national COVID-19 phone surveys. Each speaker shared specific case studies and discuss challenges, successes, and future applications of phone surveys for COVID-19 and beyond. Learn more on the RTI website.

View more from the "Learning and Adapting during COVID-19" series:

Webinar 1: How are International Development Implementers and Donors Responding in this Challenging Time?

Webinar 2: How Health Systems Can Respond to COVID-19 Disruptions

Webinar 3: Can a Planetary Health Lens Inform Pandemic Response?

Presenters

• Roxana Elliott, VP of Marketing and Content, GeoPoll
• Steven Glazerman, Chief Research & Methodology Officer, Innovations for Poverty Action
• Abigail Greenleaf, Associate Research Scientist, ICAP Columbia University
• Shane Khan, Survey Specialist, UNICEF
• Charles Lau, Research Survey Methodologist, RTI International