FAO Trains Enumerators for Food Security, Livelihood Survey

FAO Trains Enumerators for Food Security, Livelihood Survey.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Liberia, in collaboration with the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo Information Services (LISGIS), recently trained 32 enumerators for the conduct of food supply, agricultural livelihoods and food security survey in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak  in Liberia.

According to FAO’s Data Analyst/Statistician, Jacob B. Kolleh, the survey seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other periodic shocks on agricultural production, rural livelihoods, market flows, and food security.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Thursday, September 9, in Monrovia, the Director General of the LISGIS, Mr. Francis Wreh said one of the surest ways Liberia as a country can overcome food insecurity shocks, is through quality data and by ensuring that policy makers act appropriately on the findings and recommendations generated from such vital exercises.

He urged the enumerators, who were drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture, LISGIS, the National Assistance Food Agency and the National Disaster Management Agency, to take the training seriously in order to enable them to collect or gather quality data in the fields. 

“Many of such food security related surveys have been undertaken in the past with support from the FAO in Liberia over the years”, the Director General of LISGIS said.

In his overview statement, Statistician Jacob Kolleh said the training of enumerators comprised drilling them through the reference sheets for targeted interviewees or respondents, administration of questions, general training principles of FAO, familiarization of Kobo content, practice and sample data collection, among others. 

While presenting the questionnaire as one of the tools of the survey, Mr. Kolleh stated that data collection for the conduct of the survey would be carried out in all the fifteen counties in Liberia; targeting agricultural and non-agricultural households, (respondents above 18 years), residents, returnees and temporary migrants in targeted communities for twelve days. 

“Thereafter, the survey data collected will be imputed and analysed within one month to be able to come out with the survey findings,” said the FAO Statistician.