DIEM enumerators achieve full coverage of Afghanistan

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) Data in Emergencies Monitoring (DIEM‑Monitoring) System relies on enumerators all over the world to collect timely and reliable data multiple times per year through face-to-face or computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI). Active in more than 27 countries, DIEM began conducting monitoring surveys in Afghanistan in July 2020. Between July and October 2020, 1 206 agricultural households were reached through CATI in 12 provinces using the random digit dialing method to monitor the impact of shocks on agricultural livelihoods and food security in the context of COVID-19. Since then, six more rounds of DIEM-Monitoring have been conducted, and three DIEM-Impact assessments have been completed, all of which are available on the DIEM Hub.

The DIEM country analyst in Afghanistan, Mansoor Babury, has seen how increasing climate, agriculture and socio-economic shocks in Afghanistan impact ever more households across the country. Mr. Babury notes that these factors have driven DIEM to expand its surveying activities in Afghanistan “to inform programming and targeting” which are integral to “FAO and its partners utilizing results to deliver life-saving assistance and resilience building”.

For the first time since the launch of DIEM in Afghanistan, all 34 of the country’s provinces were reached during the seventh round of data collection conducted from 28 September to 17 October 2023. A total of 9 560 rural households were surveyed through face-to-face interviews, nearly eight times more than the first round.

_{Enumerators reached hundreds of households in every province of Afghanistan over a period of 19 days. ©FAO.}

This was also the first round of DIEM data collection since August 2021 in which female enumerators were engaged. Two female enumerators were able to collect data in Bamyan province marking a huge accomplishment in a context where working as a woman is often not safe. One of these female enumerators, Hawa, is motivated to support the affected communities because of her “spirit to help the affected people and make them feel hope”. Hawa enjoys collecting data face-to-face because she can “directly observe the people’s life situations and be more engaged socially with the household respondents encouraging my work and allowing me to see the needs of the people”. Hawa is one of many enumerators who enabled FAO Afghanistan to reach nearly ten thousand households across all 34 provinces over a period of only 19 days.

_{FAO was able to engage female enumerators for the first time in Bamyan province. ©FAO.}

Mohammad, a male enumerator, collected data in Maidan Wardak. He feels that face-to-face is the only modality of data collection that allows him to “find the truth” in the data. He is able to “use the local language and my communication tools depending on the abilities and knowledge of the interviewee”. Mohammad loves his homeland and serving the affected and vulnerable people, “especially farmers as they are the most vulnerable and forced to sell their products at very low prices”. Mohammad has always enjoyed his time as an enumerator interacting with the respondents who often stop their daily work to participate in the interviews.

_{Enumerators traveled all over Afghanistan and interviewed households in all 34 provinces. ©FAO.}

Following the end of data collection, the survey data was weighted, cleaned, aggregated and mapped in a record time of only half a day. Within 24 hours of the final interview conducted face-to-face in Parwan province, hundreds of maps and multiple dashboards were available marking a remarkable achievement for the DIEM-Monitoring System in terms of speed and the efficiency of data processing. Throughout 2024, DIEM will continue to reach even more households throughout all of Afghanistan.