Target launched this early February series of national surveys within the 26 DRC regions. It is a big challenge considering climate, cultural and linguistic DRC realities:  a vast country. Saleh Sikofu, Research Specialist presented on this interview various aspects of this opinion survey.

Target announces launch of the next national opinion pool; what will be survey all about?   

We are launching early this month series of national surveys on various themes such as environment, media audience, politic and health. The choice of environment among the themes is justified by that fact that today, global warming is at stake. Through this survey, Congolese will be given the possibility to express themselves on environmental issues. The second survey will be on media audience. It is a benchmark survey aiming at knowing changes within DRC media. The third survey will be on impact of adverts. Interviewed people will share their point of views on various adverts, brands as well as brand awareness in DRC. We will also capture Congolese point of views regarding upcoming elections which shall hold on this December. The last survey will be around health problems which is common in DRC, Cerebrovascular Vascular Disease (CVA).

What do these survey results aim at?

Results of these surveys will help various national decision makers on many fields to guide their decisions base on statistics drawn from Congolese realities.  The results of these surveys could also inspire researcher’s works.

What is the opportunity for conducting such surveys in DRC?

Surveys are always opportunities because they aim at giving quantitative tendencies on opinions, needs, attitudes, behaviours of a population within a given period. On our surveys, we usually approach up to date Congolese topics such as environment health, politic. On the other hands, we also have national and international topics at stake as well as their communications in DRC. However, DRC usually lacks recent and reliable statistics.  Results from these surveys will be of great help.

What do you think about your previous surveys results within Congolese society?

To be humble, our survey results help many national and international organisations improve their performances and also help them better serve people or clients. For example, some TV channels improved their broadcasted programs in order to better satisfy viewers, thanks to our media surveys.

These surveys you are about to launch, who are the end users?

Our surveys results are for national and international decision makers, researchers and students.  

DRC is a vast country, with cultural and linguistic realities, different from north to south, from west to east, what are the main challenges you face when organising a nationwide survey?

In a country with a size of a small continent like DRC, the main challenge is when one is conducting a nationwide survey and lack of road infrastructures.  It also turns out that poor internet connexion, lack of electricity, unstable communication network, climate change from one region to the other. We also face cultural and linguistic challenges. The low literacy level in some regions does not allow capturing relevant information, etc.

How to do you overcome these difficulties?

We master field realities and this allows us adapt methodological approach on data collection within each area. We are obliged to limit ourselves to the 26 main capital cities of the country and at times, in closer rural areas to conduct our surveys. CAMI (data collection with smartphones and tablets) surveys are conducted in regions where there is internet connection. For other towns, we use PAPI (paper and pen). We are at times obliged to have telephonic daily report with some teams at night. Our local teams do data collection; this reduces cultural and linguistic barriers.

How many similar surveys do you intend to do in 2018?

We aim at doing around 10 similar surveys this year. First series are these ones we are launching early this month. We aim at conducting other surveys on other topics during the second half of this year.

Interview conducted by Job Bunana

G&G Agence