In times of uncertainty, data doesn’t stop being important it becomes essential. Across Africa, from Borno to Sudan, eastern DRC to northern Mozambique, research teams face one defining question: How do you keep listening when insecurity makes face-to-face surveys impossible?
That’s where telephone surveys in conflict settings come in a method that bridges distance, sustains dialogue, and ensures that even in the hardest-to-reach places, people’s voices still count.
Understanding Conflict Settings and the Role of Telephone Surveys
Conflict settings are not just zones of violence. They are environments of instability, displacement, and fear where normal communication and logistics collapse.
In these conditions, traditional fieldwork can become unsafe or even impossible, yet the need for evidence-based insight grows sharper.
Telephone surveys provide a lifeline:
They offer a way to gather reliable, time-sensitive data without physical access, while keeping enumerators and respondents safe.
However, they also come with their own set of ethical, logistical, and methodological challenges ones that demand careful adaptation.
Core Challenges of Conducting Telephone Surveys in Conflict Settings
Even though telephone interviews bypass physical insecurity, the instability of conflict zones still impacts data quality, representativeness, and trust.
Key challenges include:
|
Challenge |
Impact on Research |
|
Network Connectivity |
Weak or inconsistent mobile coverage limits reach and increase non-response bias. |
|
Displacement and Mobility |
Constant movement of people disrupts sampling frames and respondent tracking. |
|
Trust and Fear |
Respondents may fear surveillance or misuse of information, affecting honesty and participation. |
|
Language and Accessibility |
Diverse dialects and literacy levels complicate comprehension during calls. |
|
Socioeconomic Inequality |
Access to phones often excludes the most vulnerable women, rural poor, or displaced groups. |
|
Data Security and Ethics |
Maintaining confidentiality and informed consent over the phone can be difficult in volatile areas. |
Despite these challenges, telephone surveys remain one of the most resilient and adaptable tools for understanding public perception, humanitarian needs, and social dynamics when on-ground research isn’t feasible.
Adapting the Research Process
Success in telephone surveys in conflict settings depends on flexibility, empathy, and innovation at every stage.
Before the Calls:
- Use conflict-sensitive sampling accounting for phone ownership, displacement, and mobile access gaps.
- Partner with local stakeholders for credibility and contextual understanding.
- Design short, simple questionnaires to maintain attention and reduce fatigue.
During Data Collection:
- Train enumerators use empathetic interviewing techniques for voice tone matters when trust is fragile.
- Implement call-back systems to improve participation among hard-to-reach respondents.
- Maintain real-time monitoring to detect bias, inconsistencies, or security risks.
- Prioritize confidentiality reminds respondents of anonymity and safe participation.
After Data Collection:
- Use triangulation (mixing phone data with secondary sources or qualitative follow-ups).
- Evaluate representativeness gaps who was missed and why?
- Share insights with partners transparently to support evidence-based decision-making.
Key Lessons from the Field
From years of field experience across Africa’s fragile zones, a few lessons stand out:
- Trust is everything.
Without rapport, responses become data points without truth. - Local knowledge beats technology.
Cultural fluency matters more than software. - Flexibility is a strategy, not an option.
Always plan for sudden communication breakdowns. - Ethics must guide every call.
Respect, consent, and confidentiality are non-negotiable. - Inclusivity drives accuracy.
The more diverse the voices you reach, the closer you get to the truth.
From Insight to Impact with CATI Africa
At CATI Africa, we understand that telephone surveys in conflict settings require more than good technology they require empathy, strategy, and precision.
Our teams specialize in adaptive CATI methodologies, blending human understanding with robust quality control to capture the pulse of communities across Africa even in regions where access is limited.
We don’t just collect data; we listen, adapt, and deliver insights that move decisions.
Partner with CATI Africa today let’s turn distance into dialogue and challenges into clarity.
