Ghana - Ghana Child Labour Survey - 2001

Start	End	Cycle
2001-02	2001-04	N/A

Face-to-face [f2f]
Field workers were recruited from GSS staff in all the 10 regions of the country, the field staff of Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment, and a reserved list of persons with various academic background who had been involved in GSS surveys.

Two separate training programmes were organized for the household and street children surveys. In each case, the content of the training programme covered the background to the problem of child labour, rudiments of sampling, use of EA maps, organization and procedures of the survey, explanation of concepts, completing the questionnaire, simulated interviews, field exercises reviews, discussions and class assessments.

Overall performance was based on class assessments, participation in class discussions and in field exercise. The best and the most experienced among the trainees were selected as supervisors.

Data for the household survey were collected by 25 teams under the direction of 10 zonal officers. Each team, consisting of a supervisor, four interviewers and one driver, was responsible for collecting data from 400 households. Interviewers were provided with lists of census households showing addresses/locations and names of heads of selected households in the EAs assigned to them. Where interviewers could not locate a selected household, a replacement was made from five reserved households on the lists.

Data for the street children survey were collected by twelve 5-member teams who visited already identified locations where people sleep at night and interviewed children aged 5-17 years. Six of the teams worked in Greater Accra, three in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo and three in the remaining regions.

Field control measures involved regular checks by zonal officers and inspection by officers from the Project Secretariat. Supervisors were also required to coordinate team editing once a week and effect any corrections while in the field. Data collection began in mid-January 2001 and lasted for four weeks (the street children data collection activity lasted two weeks). Completed questionnaires were returned to the Project Secretariat in Accra for office editing and processing.

The questionnaires for the GCLS were based on the children's activities module of ILO Labour Force Survey instruments, which was adapted to Ghana's situation. Various drafts of the questionnaire were widely discussed with relevant organizations such as the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC), National Council of Women & Development, National Youth Council, Department of Social Welfare, Labour Department, Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment and others.

Originally, one questionnaire was designed for both children in households and street children with several provisions for skip, where applicable. A decision to have separate questionnaires was taken after the pilot survey, which showed that it was not easy to administer one questionnaire in the field. A pilot survey was conducted in October 2000 in three EAs each of the ten regions in the country. (The Street Children Survey pilot was confined to a few known areas in Accra).

Based on the experience from the pilot, the questionnaire was re-designed into two separate instruments, one for households and one for street children; some questions were re-worded and changes made in answer categories. The interviewer's manual and the work-load of field workers were extensively revised.

The household questionnaire collected information on housing/household characteristics, socio-demographic characteristics of all household members, information on economic activity, health and other conditions of children. The street children questionnaire collected information on socio-demographic characteristics, living arrangements, parental background, economic activities, health, safety and other related street issues and what assistance street children expected of society and government.

Name	Abbreviation	Affiliation
Ghana Statistical Service	GSS	Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning
Ministry of Manpower and rural Employment	MME

Data for the household survey were collected by 25 teams under the direction of 10 zonal officers. Each team, consisting of a supervisor, four interviewers and one driver, was responsible for collecting data from 400 households. Data for the street children survey were collected by twelve 5-member teams who visited already identified locations where people sleep at night and interviewed children aged 5-17 years. Six of the teams worked in Greater Accra, three in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo and three in the remaining regions.

Field control measures involved regular checks by zonal officers and inspection by officers from the Project Secretariat. Supervisors were also required to coordinate team editing once a week and effect any corrections while in the field.