Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010 - Measure DHS

all regions to do the listing of households and delineation of EAs. A manual that described the listingprocedure was prepared and translated into Dari, as a guideline. The training was conducted usingclassroom demonstrations and field practice, with support from ICF Macro and MoPH. The listing wasperformed by teams composed of one lister and one mapper. Five core team members were also assignedto perform quality checks.At the end of the listing operations, out of the 751 clusters selected throughout the eightgeographic regions and three zones, 719 were listed (with 2 of the listed clusters not surveyed).1.8.2 PretestPrior to the start of the fieldwork, the questionnaires were pretested in both local languages, Dariand Pashto, to make sure that the questions were clear and could be understood by the respondents. Atraining of trainers was conducted by ICF Macro staff at MoPH for 35 participants over a two-weekperiod from February 1-14, 2010. These trainees were recruited to conduct the pilot survey and to serve astrainers for the main training. The pilot survey was conducted in the two local languages from February16-20, 2010, in three selected sites. The areas selected for the pretest were Estalif, Karte Parwan, andKarte Se from Kabul province which constituted rural, urban, and semi-urban households. Based on thefindings of the pretest, the Household, Woman’s, and Verbal Autopsy Questionnaires were further refinedin the two local languages.1.8.3 TrainingThe training of interviewers, editors, supervisors, quality control staff, and reserves wasconducted from March 23, 2010, to April 17, 2010. The Dari and Pashto questionnaires were used duringthe training, and both versions were simultaneously checked against the English questionnaires to ensureaccurate translation. In addition to classroom training, trainees did several days of field practice to gainmore experience on interviewing in the two local languages and in fieldwork logistics.In order to maintain uniform survey procedures, five manuals adapted from the core DHSmanuals relating to different aspects of the survey were prepared in English and translated into Dari. TheInterviewer’s Manual discussed the objectives of the AMS, interviewing techniques, field procedures,general procedures for completing the questionnaires, and included a detailed discussion of the Householdand Woman’s Questionnaires. The Verbal Autopsy Manual discussed the process of conducting theverbal autopsy interviews and completing the verbal autopsy forms. The Supervisor’s and Editor’sManual contained instructions on organizing and supervising fieldwork, maintaining and monitoring fieldcontrol sheets, and general rules for editing completed questionnaires in the field. Trainers were given theTraining Guidelines for DHS Surveys Manual, which described the administrative and logistical aspectsof training and data quality checks using the field check tables. The Household Listing Manual describedthe mapping and household listing procedures used in DHS surveys.A total of 174 trainees were trained in three classrooms. The trainees were selected from367 initial applicants through interviews and written tests in Kabul, Hirat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, andJalalabad between March 10, 2010, and March 14, 2010. An additional 60 persons were nominated fromthe MoPH, provincial and other government officials. In each class, the training was conducted by onesenior staff member of the MoPH who had been trained during the training of trainers. In addition, sixother participants trained during the pretest helped the staff of MoPH conduct the training. Two guestspeakers from MoPH were invited to discuss family planning and reproductive and child health inAfghanistan. The Safety and Security office of USAID provided a security briefing for all trainees and aspecialized briefing for the supervisors and editors. Training of field staff was rigorous. The 3-weekfulltime training consisted of instruction in general interviewing techniques and field procedures for the12 | Introduction