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9th panel wave TH underway

9th TVSEP Household Panel Wave in Thailand Underway

Since May 5, TVSEP has started its last household panel survey of phase II of the project. There are three provincial teams, i.e. for the TVSEP provinces Nakhon Phanom, Ubon Ratchathani and Buri Ram. A total of 45 enumerators organized into 9 sub-teams and supervised by a sub-team leader are interviewing up to 90 households per day. Each sub-team visits one village per day to interview the 10 TVSEP households, who are in the panel since the first survey in 2007. Considering delays and special events, including occasional local Covid-19 outbreaks, the survey is expected to finish during the first week of June. In addition to the up to 2200 household interviews, heads of the 220 TVSEP villages are also interviewed about recent changes in village infrastructure and socio-economic development.  Until to date, the survey is going well and generally according to expectations.

Prior to the start of the survey, local survey staff has been trained by the LUH team in a well-planned stepwise process. First, three English-speaking provincial team leaders (PTL) underwent a thorough three-days training. The aim of the training was to make them understand the TVSEP concept, the content of the questionnaire, the survey technology, based on computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) using the World Bank’s survey solution software package and team management and organization. The training of PTL was followed by two-days training for sub-team leaders with a focus on the management and supervision of the enumerator teams. The PTL's assisted the LUH team in training STL, whose English language skills were more limited. After the five-days training of local supervisors, a nine-days training for 50 interviewer candidates took place. The Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Ubon Ratchathani University welcomed participants with an opening speech. Hereby, the PTL and STL played an active role in supervising practical exercises by the trainees. The training ended with a theoretical and practical test as a basis for choosing enumerators. In the end, 45 enumerators had passed the test and they were included in the survey team. The long duration and high intensity of the training was necessary due the complexity of the survey instrument with over 1000 questions and a demanding, sophisticated GPS-based, plot measurement tool. 

It is expected that the 2022 panel data will also provide an excellent basis for assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in rural Thailand.  

Photo 1: Opening training by Dean of Faculty of Agriculture
Photo 3: The Provincial Team Leader team
Photo 2: Enumerator training at Ubon Ratchathani University with “physical distancing” and face masks
Photo 4: Practicing an interview
Photo 5: Ready to go for the survey!