Rwanda - Demographic and Health Survey 2014-2015

Start	End	Cycle
2014-11-09	2015-04-08	N/A

Face-to-face [f2f]

A pretest was conducted from August 25 to September 22, 2014. Thirty-four individuals (17 women and 17 men) participated in the four-week pretest training and fieldwork practice for the 2014-15 RDHS. The majority of participants had worked in previous RDHS surveys. Training was conducted by representatives from the NISR, the MOH, the RBC Malaria and Other Parasitic Diseases Division, the RBC HIV division, and the RBC NRL, with technical assistance from ICF International. UNICEF provided training on the early childhood development module. Classroom instruction was provided during the first three weeks, and pretest fieldwork took place over five days in three rural villages and two urban villages. After the fieldwork, a debriefing session was held with the pretest field staff, and modifications to the questionnaires were made based on lessons drawn from the exercise.
The main training for the 2014-15 RDHS started on October 5, 2014, and ended on November 2, 2014. A total of 136 participants from across the country were invited to participate in the training. They were selected based on merit. Eighty-eight of the participants were female, and 48 were male. From October 6-25, the training focused on the questionnaires. These sessions were conducted by NISR trainers with support from ICF International. Class presentations by trainers were followed by mock interviews, group practice, and role playing among participants in the classroom.
All participants were trained on the questionnaires through October 26. From October 27-30, 34 participants identified as health technicians were separated and trained on biomarkers. Meanwhile, the remaining participants continued to be trained on the questionnaires. Training on biomarkers was provided by representatives from the NRL with support from ICF International. Health technicians learned how to 12 • Introduction withdrawal blood samples for HIV testing, how to prepare blood slides for malaria testing, and how to conduct anemia and rapid malaria testing. In addition, procedures for handling and packaging dried blood spots and slides were reviewed and demonstrated. Training on taking anthropometry measurements (weight and height) was also covered in detail. Training included PowerPoint presentations to illustrate procedures and emphasized practice among lab technicians in order to ensure accuracy. At the end of the main training, 17 teams were formed, each consisting of a team leader, a field editor, a health technician, a male interviewer, and three female interviewers. Team leaders received additional training on how to identify the selected households and different subsamples, data quality control procedures, and fieldwork coordination. Field editors received additional training on how to edit the questionnaires and on data quality control procedures.

Data collection for the 2014-15 RDHS was carried out by 17 field teams from November 9, 2014, to April 8, 2015. Each team was provided a vehicle with a driver. All questionnaires and blood specimens were transferred to the NISR office every 3-4 days by 10 supervisors from the NISR and NRL/RBC who also coordinated and supervised fieldwork activities. ICF International provided technical assistance during the entire five months of data collection period.

In addition to face-to-face question, height and weight were measured, anemia and Malaria were tested for all eligible women (15-49) and children aged 0-5 years in 50% of the Households sampled. Similarly, height and weight were measured for all eligible men (15-59) in Households selected for man survey (i. e in the remaining 50% of Households sampled).

Also, HIV testing was done from all women (15-49) and men (15-59), and for children (0-14) in a half of Households selected for man survey (i.e 25% of all sampled Households).

Three questionnaires were used for RDHS-V 2014-2015: the Household Questionnaire, the Woman's Questionnaire, and the Man's Questionnaire. They are based on questionnaires developed by the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program and on questionnaires used during the 2005 RDHS, 2007-08 RIDHS and RDHS 2010 surveys. To reflect relevant issues in population and health in Rwanda, the questionnaires were adapted during a series of technical meetings with various stakeholders from government ministries and agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and international donors. The questionnaires were translated from English into Kinyarwanda.

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation
National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda	NSIR	Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning

Seventeen (17) teams of field staff undertook and completed the data collection for this survey.
Each team was composed of a team leader (male), one controller or field editor (female), three female interviewers, one male interviewer, and a lab technician in charge of blood drawings and anthropometric measurements.

The responsibilities of team Controller and supervisor included:

• Spot-check some of the addresses selected for interviewing to be sure that correct households and respondents were interviewed.
• Review each questionnaire to ensure that it is complete and consistent;
• Observe some of their interviews to ensure that they (enumerators) are asking questions in the right manner and recording the answers correctly;

• Organize a daily meeting to discuss performance and give out future work assignments;

• Assist enumerators to handle problems they might have on field.

In order to strengthen quality control, NISR designated three (3) coordinators who were present in the field throughout the period of the survey. Furthermore, field work supervisions were conducted by NISR and RBC through regular visits to enumerator's teams to review their work and monitor data quality.