Short paper on the Impact-Survey-Bot & Data Collection in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the past, web-based surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa have suffered from connectivity and device ownership issues, and consequently, most surveys in this area are still administered using paper-based methodology. In recent years, however, smartphones and instant messengers have become more prevalent, and therefore, chatbot-based surveys have become an option – one that has, up to now, seldom been used despite large potential benefits.

The Impact-Survey-Bot is a WhatsApp/Telegram chatbot for conducting surveys and data forms, developed by A2EI, and used by A2EI and various partners in research. Together with CODE University of Applied Sciences and RCHA RDC/Asbl, Lukas Müller from A2EI researched its feasibility for data collection in Sub-Saharan Africa in a small qualitative study.

The study concludes that data collection was feasible with different study designs, and could revolutionize data collection in Sub-Saharan Africa because remote (especially web-based) surveys are challenging. Specifically the familiar interface of WhatsApp, the digitisation of the research process, and the opportunity to include voice messages, pictures and GPS were significant success factors.

The short paper can be found in ACM’s digital library: https://doi.org/10.1145/3640794.3665584

Download the associated poster here.