Socio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts - chtdf

HDRCSocio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts242.6.2 Recruitment of Listing and Survey PersonnelThis activity consisted of recruitment and training of Enumerator for Households listing andHousehold Listing Supervisors, Field Investigators, Field Supervisors, Quality Control Officers(QCOs), Registration Assistants, Coders, Code Verifiers, Editors and Edit-Verifiers. Surveypersonnel were recruited by inviting and interviewing eligible candidates throughadvertisement among those who were able to make communications in local language of CHT.In selecting these personnel, ‘gender equality’ was strictly adhered to. In addition, in selectingthese staff, special preference was given to those having past experience in field data collection.The interviewing committee was headed by the Team Leader. The field staff was recruited intwo steps. In first step, a team of highly qualified Field Supervisors (FS) and Quality ControlOfficers (QCO) was recruited at Dhaka from among those who have past experience in thesimilar job in CHT. In second step, in order to ensure compatibility of the field team with localtradition and culture, the second part of the field team was recruited from all ethniccommunities in CHT. These local field investigators were recruited through TAUNGYA, anon-political voluntary and development organization working in CHT, who worked as localpartner of HDRC in this study. All those selected preliminarily were recruited as trainees. Atrainee was finally appointed to the specific post, depending on his/her performance in thetraining. After successful completion of training, a total of 56-member field team was recruitedfor successful completion of the field data/information collection process. The field teamcomprised of 41 field investigator, 10 field supervisors, and 5 quality control officers. On theother hand, ethnicity balance of field team was maintained. The strategic strength of FieldTeam was the participation of all communities which captured the socio-cultural diversities andheterogeneous features of CHT population. This model of recruitment, training and field datacollection by involving indigenous peoples and by mentioning ethnicity balance has been, byitself, a great learning because it (a) enhanced greater mutual understanding betweenindigenous peoples and Bangalees, and (b) built capacity of the data collectors– bothindigenous peoples and Bangalees in the CHT (many of whom got the chance first time in theirlife).2.6.3 Training of Field PersonnelTraining must be considered as a crucial phase for successful and quality data collection. Inthis regard a rigorous training was provided to all the types of field personnel including FieldSupervisors, Quality Control Officers and Field Investigators for 8 days (from 30 December2007 to 06 January 2008). Training was imparted on the whole data collection instrument andquality control issues. To ease the training process as well as to build solidarity amongtrainees drawn from all ethnic groups, residential training arrangement was made for thetrainees. There was separate training for Survey teams and In-house (coding, editing,registration) teams. The topics of training for survey team included, among others, an overviewof the study, overall objective of the study, data collection instruments, sample drawingtechniques, techniques of rapport building and interviewing. In training, both quantitative andqualitative tools were addressed. Training was conducted through classroom lectures,demonstration interviews, role playing, field practice, review of lessons learned and suggestedsolutions. The training was imparted by the members of the study team under close guidancefrom and supervision of the Socio-economist, Professor Abul Barkat. To assess the capacityachieved by field personnel one demonstration interview and two field practices wereconducted. To develop the ownership sense of the study among the field personnel and boostup their mind-set to take the challenge of field activities and to draw proper attention and