Improving Shoestring Surveys for Off-Grid Humanitarian Power Projects: Kilowatts for Humanity and KoboCollect

Abstract

Field surveys are commonplace and essential for off-grid power projects in developing countries where availability of data may be scarce. Critical decisions such as site selection, technology choice, business models employed, and approach to community engagement are all greatly assisted by data that can be gathered through field surveys. Paper-based field surveys, the de facto standard approach, are prone to error, slow to deploy and adjust, and have other practical challenges despite the obvious advantage of having fewer technological dependencies. Over recent years, improvement in freely available surveying software, smartphones and tablets, as well as good cellular coverage throughout the world offers humanitarian organizations an opportunity to implement digital field surveys with relative ease. This article presents the experience implementing KoboCollect by Kilowatts for Humanity (KWH), a non-profit that implements sustainable energy kiosks in developing countries. KoboCollect is an open-source data collection software platform designed to support humanitarian and research organizations. In this paper, limitations of paper-based field surveys from previous KWH projects, as well as from the extant literature, are considered with respect to their ultimate impact on the implementation of the development project. A new approach is presented in which survey questions are refined based on past experience and are directly related to pre-defined project indicators. Key benefits and challenges are identified from the adoption of the new approach and methodological questions around sampling and decision-making following data collection are discussed. The new method is discussed in the context of a KWH survey project being conducted in the summer of 2018 in three locations in the Philippines. A major goal of this work is to open a discussion about the successes and failures of the shoestring, paper-based survey methodology and point to current best practices.

Grain Handling and Storage in Lubero and Rutshuru Territories in the North Kivu Province, the Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Android tablets with a questionnaire uploaded in KoboCollect application [19] were used to administer the survey. The survey had open-and close-ended questions.…”

RAPID DATA COLLECTION FOR THE AUDIT OF MONUMENTS & MEMORIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA

“…Additionally, this method would necessitate an extensive period of data capture towards the end of the project, thereby limiting functional fieldwork time. Dauenhauer et al (2019) further notes the difficulties encountered during the processing of physical paper-based surveys, which include; the legibility of written responses, and standardisation of data entry. Furthermore, as a survey of this nature is inherently spatial, the ability to collect good quality location data is a critical success factor.…”

“…The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presented its own challenges in terms of the ability to provide comprehensive training opportunities. Whilst some of the challenges noted by Dauenhauer et al (2019) are possible to be mitigated through training, the ability to provide said training was a limiting factor due to restrictions imposed on gatherings and a lack of access to internet in some areas. As full fieldwork time needed to take priority, and training opportunities were limited, a digital, and rapidly deployable ecosystem was needed that could serve to mitigate the noted limitations and provide appropriate remote, and real time, oversight.…”

“…Geolocation capture 8. Ease of integration with the inventory of the national estate As noted by Dauenhauer et al (2019), a digital approach provides higher quality data to be collected at a greater pace, as well as providing a mechanism for mitigating the limitations noted in the preceding discussions.…”

“…As such retraining/refreshing had to be regularly held to address issues as they were identified. A potential pitfall of limited training noted by Dauenhauer et al (2019) is the input of random data into fields as a coping mechanism to move through the collection form and bypass information prompts that are perhaps not well enough understood. This pitfall was indeed encountered through this project and has resulted in the need to review and possibly re-record certain sites.…”