Enumerators tipped on quality data
Dowa district commissioner Stallichi Mwambiwa has urged enumerators to strive to provide quality data that will be useful in implementing various programmes and interventions in the district.
He said this on Tuesday ahead of the training of enumerators to update the district’s Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR).
Mwambiwa said collection of quality data does not only depend on enumerators, but also the district’s training team which is integral in building the capacity of enumerators and spearheading the data-collection process.
He said: “The UBR is crucial in identifying participants in important programmes such as Social Cash Transfer, Enhanced Climate-Smart Public Works and others; hence, the need to have quality data to avoid mishaps.
“However, we sometimes blame enumerators for poor data, but the genesis of quality data collection begins with the trainers. If you properly train and lead the enumerators, the data will be of high quality.”
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs principal economist responsible for poverty reduction and social protection division John Mwale said they have put in place measures to ensure that there is no room for manipulation of data input activities.
He said: “We have a facility which will show the time when an interview was conducted which will be cross-checked in relation to the number of household members, distance covered from one household to another and other variables.
“We will also have spot-checks and GPS mechanism which will show where and at what time one was. As such, any ill activity should not even be taken into consideration.”
