High Frequency Phone Survey, Continuous Data Collection 2023
Quarter 4 2023 to Quarter 1 2025
Vanuatu, 2024 - 2025
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SPC_VUT_2023_HFPS-Q4_v01_M_v01_A_PUF
High Frequency Phone Survey, Continuous Data Collection 2023
Quarter 4 2023 to Quarter 1 2025
HFPS 2023
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Vanuatu | VUT |
Other Household Survey [hh/oth]
To increase data availability and promote evidence-based policymaking, the Pacific Observatory provides innovative solutions and data sources to complement existing survey data and analysis. One of these data sources is a series of High Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS), which began in 2020 to monitor the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and since 2023 has grown into a series of continuous surveys for socio-economic monitoring. For Vanuatu, data for December 2023 – January 2025 was collected with each month.
Access to up-to-date socio-economic data is a widespread challenge in Vanuatu and other Pacific Island Countries. To increase data availability and promote evidence-based policymaking, the Pacific Observatory provides innovative solutions and data sources to complement existing survey data and analysis. One of these data sources is a series of High Frequency Phone Surveys (HFPS), which began in 2020 to monitor the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and since 2023 has grown into a series of continuous surveys for socio-economic monitoring. See https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/pacificislands/brief/the-pacific-observatory for further details.
For Vanuatu, data for December 2023 – January 2025 was collected with each month having approximately 1000 households in the sample and is representative of urban and rural areas but is not representative at the province level. This dataset contains combined monthly survey data for all months of the continuous HFPS in Vanuatu. There is one date file for household level data with a unique household ID. And a separate file for individual level data within each household data, that can be matched to the household file using the household ID, and which also has a unique individual ID within the household data which can be used to track individuals over time within households, where the data is panel data.
Sample survey data [ssd]
Household and individuals.
Version
Cleaned, labelled and anonymized version of the master file.
2025-03-21
Scope
-HOUSEHOLD: Interview information and Basic information (Section 1); Household roster (Sections 2a and 2b); Labor (Sections 3a and 3b); Food security (Section 4a); Household income (Section 5); Agriculture (Section 6); Social protection (Section 7); Access to services (Section 8); Assets (Section 9); Perceptions (Section 10).
-INDIVIDUAL: Basic information (Section 1); Employment and income information (Sections 3a and 3b).
Coverage
National, urban and rural. Six provinces were covered by this survey: Sanma, Shefa, Torba, Penama, Malampa and Tafea.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| World Bank | World Bank Group |
| Shohei Nakamura | World Bank Group |
| William Seitz | World Bank Group |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| The Pacific Observatory | Technical assistance | |
| International Bank for Reconstruction and Development | Pacific Community | Technical assistance |
| Name | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| World Bank Group | WBG | Funding |
| Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade | DFAT | Funding |
Sampling
The Vanuatu High Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) sample is drawn from the list of customer phone numbers (MSIDNS) provided by Digicel Vanuatu, one of the country’s two main mobile providers. Digicel’s customer base spans all regions of Vanuatu. For the initial data collection, Digicel filtered their MSIDNS database to ensure a representative distribution across regions. Recognizing the challenge of reaching low-income respondents, Digicel also included low-income areas and customers with a low-income profile (defined by monthly spending between 50 and 150 VT), as well as those with only incoming calls or using the IOU service without repayment. These filtered lists were then randomized, and enumerators began calling the numbers.
This approach was used to complete the first round of 1,000 interviews. The respondents from this first round formed a panel to be surveyed monthly. Each month, phone numbers from the panel are contacted until all have been interviewed, at which point new phone numbers (fresh MSIDNS from Digicel’s database) are used to replace those that have been exhausted. These new respondents are then added to the panel for future surveys.
In November 2024, a total of 7,874 calls were made. Of these, 2,251 calls were successfully connected, and 1,000 respondents completed the survey. By February 2024, the sample was fully comprised of returning respondents, with a re-contact rate of 99.9 percent.
Survey instrument
The questionnaire was developed in both English and Bislama. Sections of the Questionnaire:
-Interview Information
-Household Roster (separate modules for new households and returning households)
-Labor (separate modules for new households and returning households)
-Food Security
-Household Income
-Agriculture
-Social Protection
-Access to Services
-Assets
-Perceptions
-Follow-up
Open-ended response “Other, specify” in various questions in the questionnaire was recorded as a separate variable in the raw dataset. These were recoded and incorporated as a response option of the corresponding multiple-choice question. These “other, specify” variables were then dropped from the household and individual data sets.
For consistency purposes, all categorical levels were labeled identically across variables, where applicable.
The dataset was reweighted using the latest nationally representative household survey, which was the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) from 2019/20. A set of common variables between the 2019/20 HIES and the HFPS data set were identified and made to be comparable through re-coding and aggregation of response options, where response options were different. For the household dataset, hh_weight is used for household-level analysis. For the individual-level analysis, the variable person_weight should be used.
The data is then analyzed and published on a Dashboard. Link:
Data collection
| Start | End | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-12-01 | 2025-01-31 | Data collection |
- Computer Assisted Telephone Interview [cati]
| Name |
|---|
| Digicel Vanuatu |
The High Frequency Phone Survey was conducted between December 2023 to January 2025 by Digicel Vanuatu using a team of local enumerators operating from Port Villa, with remote technical support.
Data processing
At the end of data collection, the raw dataset was cleaned by the survey firm and the World Bank team. Data cleaning mainly included formatting, relabeling, and excluding survey monitoring variables (e.g., interview start and end times). Data was edited using the software STATA.
The data are presented in two datasets: a household dataset and an individual dataset. The total number of observations is 13,779 in the household dataset and 77,501 in the individual dataset. The individual dataset contains information on individual demographics and labor market outcomes of all household members aged 15 and above, and the household data set contains information about household demographics, education, food security, household income, agriculture activities, social protection, access to services, and durable asset ownership. The household identifier (hhid) is available in both the household dataset and the individual dataset. The individual identifier (hhid_mem) can be found in the individual dataset.
Data Access
| Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required? | Confidentiality declaration text |
|---|---|
| yes | Before being granted access to the dataset, all users must formally agree: 1. To make no copies of any files or portions of files to which s/he is granted access except those authorized by the data depositor. 2. Not to use any technique in an attempt to learn the identity of any person, establishment, or sampling unit not identified on public use data files. 3. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any establishment or individual that may be inadvertently revealed in any documents or discussion, or analysis. Such inadvertent identification revealed in her/his analysis needs to be immediately brought to the attention of the data depositor. |
The dataset has been anonymized and is available as a Public Use Dataset. It is accessible to all for statistical and research purposes only, under the following terms and conditions:
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The data and other materials will not be redistributed or sold to other individuals, Institutions, or organizations without the written agreement of the World Bank Microdata Library.
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The data will be used for statistical and scientific research purposes only. They will be used solely for reporting of aggregated information, and not for investigation of specific individuals or organizations,
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No attempt will be made to re-identify respondents, and no use will be made of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently. Any such discovery would immediately be reported to the World Bank Microdata Library.
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No attempt will be made to produce links among datasets provided by the World Bank Microdata Library, or among data from the World Bank Microdata Library and other datasets that could identify individuals or organizations.
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Any books, articles, conference papers, theses, dissertations, reports, or other publications that employ data obtained from the World Bank Microdata Library will cite the source of data in accordance with the Citation Requirement provided with each dataset.
"Vanuatu, High Frequency Phone Survey Q4 2023 to Q1 2025, Continuous Data Collection 2023 (HFPS 2023-Q4), Version 01 of the licensed dataset (March 2025), provided by the Pacific Data Hub - Microdata Library. https://microdata.pacificdata.org/index.php/home"
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | |
|---|---|---|
| Shohei Nakamura | World Bank | snakamura2@worldbank.org |
Metadata production
DDI_SPC_VUT_2023_HFPS-Q4_v01_M_v01_A_PUF
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics for Development Division | SDD | Pacific Community (SPC) | Documentation of the study |
2025-03-24
Metadata version
-Version 1: This is the first attempt at documenting the first continuous data collection of Quarter 4 2023 to Quarter 1 2025 of Fiji Islands. Done by Statistics for Development Division at Noumea, New Caledonia.