Listening Surveys are nationally representative monthly surveys on social and economic wellbeing, providing fast and reliable data that are especially useful during transition and complex reform periods.
What are Listening Surveys?
Listening Surveys are innovative tools designed to monitor social and economic wellbeing. The surveys are conducted monthly, providing a near real-time snapshot on topics ranging from household economics to public perceptions of government policies.
Currently, the World Bank conducts Listening Surveys in several countries, including:
- Listening to Kazakhstan
- Listening to Ukraine
- Listening to Uzbekistan
- Listening to Tajikistan
- Kyrgyz Republic
These surveys are also conducted in Indonesia, Armenia, Georgia, and several African nations.
Key Features of Listening Surveys
Listening Surveys are comprehensive and adaptable. They blend welfare monitoring with polling questions, filling a crucial gap in the policy generation process. The surveys maintain a core set of modules that remain consistent, allowing for trend analysis over time. However, they also offer the flexibility to add new modules as needed, enabling responsiveness to emerging issues or specific policy interests.
Listening surveys are typically household panels, which allows focused analysis on the drivers of change, making them invaluable tools for understanding societal shifts and policy impacts. The core panel questionnaire covers a range of topics, including:
- Social and economic wellbeing
- Financial services and consumer protection
- Public services and shocks
- Views on public policy and reform priorities
- Employment and income
- Migration patterns
Methodology and Representativeness
To ensure national representativeness, Listening Surveys use reliable sampling method drawing from baseline surveys conducted in-person. The process begins by randomly selecting primary sample units within the survey country, and stratifying the design to ensure sufficient sample size even from places with relatively low population density. In a second stage, households are randomly selected from within each sample unit, to participate in the monthly panel. This approach ensures a diverse and representative sample, covering both rural and urban areas and respondents from various walks of life.
The Value of Listening Surveys
Listening Surveys provide unique value in several key areas:
1. Rapid Response to Unexpected Events
Due to their ongoing nature, Listening Surveys are ideal tools for capturing the impact of unexpected events. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, these surveys provided crucial reality checks on the ground situation, offering insights into job losses, migration patterns, and other socioeconomic impacts.
2. Informing Policy Design and Reform
The surveys have played a significant role in shaping policy reforms. A notable example is the reform of Uzbekistan's propiska system (internal passports and residency permits). Listening Survey data revealed strong public support for reform, which contributed to the comprehensive liberalization of the system in 2020.
3. Tracking Drivers of Changing Attitudes
By interviewing the same households over time, Listening Surveys can track transitions in attitudes and circumstances. This longitudinal approach provides valuable insights into who is falling into poverty or becoming disillusioned, and why. Such information is crucial for understanding the drivers of social and economic change.
4. Monitoring Food Security and Wellbeing
The surveys have been instrumental in tracking food security issues across Central Asia, demonstrating how official food inflation rates translate directly into increased food insecurity. This information is vital for designing targeted interventions and social protection programs.
Listening Surveys represent a powerful tool in the World Bank's arsenal for understanding and responding to the dynamic socioeconomic landscapes of developing nations. By providing rapid, reliable, and representative data, these surveys enable policymakers to make informed decisions and track the impact of reforms in near real-time.