A comprehensive effort to draw a picture of the current state of media access/needs across Afghanistan and to gain insight into the nation’s understanding of food and nutrition through a series of Random Digit Dialing (RDD) and Face to Face (F2F) Interviews.
The media can serve as a powerful conduit for bringing change, raising awareness, and disseminating vital information. BBC Media Action, through this project, aimed to ascertain the media and communication needs of the people, especially the rural and marginalized communities. This is part of their new and innovative initiative to combat the food insecurity and malnutrition issues across Afghanistan through ad campaigns and PSAs.
AACS Consulting had the honor of getting the opportunity to help BBC MA with their new initiative by providing data collection services. AACS consulting assisted BBC MA with designing the data collection plan, developing the necessary tools and questionnaires, providing skilled and well-trained enumerators, and designing/implementing the RDD and F2F Interviews.
The biggest highlight of the project was its use of a combined RDD and F2F approach, which ensured that citizens without access to phones and other means of communication were also represented in the data. AACS consulting also designed a method for random number generation, which ensured the numbers generated coincided with the formats of all five telecommunication service providers in Afghanistan. This significantly streamlined the RDD interview process. The collected data was broken down, reshaped, and transformed into meaningful and insightful indicators using various statistical tools such as R, Python, SPSS, and Excel.
Conducting research in Afghanistan is challenging due to socioeconomic barriers and insecurity. AACS Consulting put full effort and brought all the available possibilities of preventing measures to keep the field staff safe during different stages of this research study. In addition, AACS Consulting was committed to undertaking research of the highest standard and in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. This included how AACS Consulting monitored the data collection process (As it’s pretty different for RDD compared to conventional household surveys) through spot checks and back checks. Furthermore, AACS Consulting adhered to a strict code of ethics and endeavors to address significant concerns around consent, confidentiality, anonymity, safeguarding vulnerable people, and the potential impact of the research on both research participants and researchers.
One of the happiest memories I have from conducting the BBC surveys was the day I went to survey one of the remote villages. It was the 10th of Muharram, and the people of that village were Shiites, so there was a religious event being held at a mosque to which we were warmly invited. They even invited us for a delicious meal. It was an excellent memory for me. My worst memory from conducting BBC surveys was that most people talked about their dire economic situation. One respondent shared how they were consistently borrowing money, reducing their meals, selling their household goods, and being forced to make their children do hard labor in order to survive. It was excruciating to hear this.
One of my best memories from onducting this survey is that I once went for a survey to a village, and an older man insisted I take a picture of him with his wife and publish it somewhere, and I obliged him. I put their picture on my phone screen and told the man it was done. The man was delighted. My unpleasant memory of the survey was when I figured out that because of the poor economic situation of the people, they did not have access to media and other means of ommunication to draw the world’s attention to their needs; It made me very sad.
My best memory while conducting the surveys was that I got to meet new people. The people I Interviewed respected me a lot, and it was very informative. My worst memory that made me sad during the survey was that I met some families who said they had sold their children. I did what I could to counsel them and advise them from doing it again, yet I know that they did it out of necessity and the household wouldn’t have survived. It just goes to show how harsh the lives of some of these families are. It makes me……….depressed, to say the least.
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Third-Party Monitoring Services (Baseline/Beneficiary Verification, PDM, and PHM/Outcome) for UNFAO
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Using Media and Creative Communication to Address Nutrition and Food Insecurity in Afghanistan
Research & Survey
M&E System Development and Capacity Building for the Organization of Human Welfare (OHW)
Management Consulting
Market Distribution Channels’ Assessment for BES Agriculture Services
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Agriculture Business Development Services for USAID
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End-line Evaluation of a Women and Girls’ Rights Promotion Project for BBC Media Action
Monitoring & Evaluation
Third-Party Monitoring and Impact Evaluation Services for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO)
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Third-Party Monitoring and Evaluation Services for the U.S. Department of State
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Research Study on Youth Employment for UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia
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Multiple Nationwide Surveys for BBC Media Action
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Feasibility Studies on the Khush Tepa Irrigation and Power Generation Mega Project for USAID and the Government of Afghanistan
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