Starting from Scratch: Making Research a Reality in Afghanistan

By Matthew Warshaw

The road to conducting survey research that meets international standards is one not easily paved in Afghanistan. Violence, illiteracy in both urban and rural areas, segments of the population hostile to research, and cultural constraints on access to the family in general and women in particular all have had to be faced in the process of building a venture that has grown from simple urban polls of Kabul to multistage, nationally representative random survey samples.

In 2003, the first registered research firm in Afghanistan was founded by D3 Systems, Inc., an internationally oriented market, media, and opinion research company based in Vienna, Virginia, with research experience in over eighty countries. The Afghan Center for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research (ACSOR) is a joint venture with two leading research firms, BBSS (Bulgaria) and Gallup Pakistan/BRB, that has conducted qualitative and quantitative research projects for an international client group including Nestlé, the BBC, the Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe. We have developed a strong team of Afghans in multiple offices (Kabul, Mazar e Sharif, and Jalalaabad) to lead a multiethnic and gender-balanced field team.

The venture has been highly successful, but there are a number of obstacles to research in Afghanistan. While some have deep cultural and historical roots, others arise from over twenty years of war and the repressive policies of the Taliban regime, especially toward women. Since there was no existing research infrastructure in Afghanistan, ACSOR had to start from scratch and overcome many challenges in order to provide clients with reliable results. Following are some of the key obstacles to any kind of survey research in Afghanistan:

Low educational achievement. Successive surveys of Afghanistan with samples of 2,000 or more adults ages eighteen years and over show that anywhere from 45 to 48 percent of the population are illiterate, and only around 5 percent of adults have attained a higher education. Illiteracy is much more common among women than men. As our samples are genuinely national, we find higher levels of illiteracy in Afghanistan's villages, compared to its towns and cities, including Kabul. The general lack of education has obvious implications for questionnaire design and the use of standard tools, such as show cards. While any question can be asked, the more complex and reliant on a show card it is, the more likely a significant portion of respondents will refuse to answer or give a "don't know" reply. Keeping design simple and avoiding complex wording is of particular importance in Afghanistan.

Long distances and the lack of infrastructure. Afghanistan has a vast and varied landscape. While it is slightly smaller than Texas, it has few paved roads, and internal ground and air travel are extremely limited and dangerous. The logistics for surveys with over two hundred sampling points must be carefully planned.

Continuing violence throughout the country. Also threatening to researchers are the violence and armed struggle that are still a problem in Afghanistan. Violence is particularly pronounced in the eastern and southern regions adjacent to Pakistan where Osama bin Laden and the remnants of the Taliban regime are suspected of hiding. Such violence can interrupt sampling when a situation suddenly arises in the midst of fieldwork. Sometimes waiting a few days is sufficient, but occasionally sampling points must be substituted if there is a prolonged disruption.

Unfamiliarity with survey research. The typical Afghan has never been surveyed and is unaware of what survey research is all about. Over time, increasing numbers of surveys will be conducted to support foreign aid and health programs, such as programs to vaccinate against polio or promote the use of iodized salt. Afghans will have more and more direct exposure to interviewers doing paper and pencil interviews and become more familiar with survey work; but this will be a slowly evolving process in the coming years. In the meantime, supervisors and interviewers must spend time explaining to local leaders and respondents why they are doing this work and encouraging participation.

Cultural restrictions on access to women. While the typical Afghan household will open its doors to strangers and offer hospitality, access to women is limited, especially in the villages and small towns. It is very difficult to achieve a gender-balanced sample in rural Afghanistan, though less so in Kabul and the other leading cities. Kandahar has been an exceptionally difficult city, not surprisingly, as it was the home of the Taliban. In one of our early surveys, the female field team in Kandahar quit en masse on the first day of interviewing. Apparently their training had not prepared them for the frustrations and uncertainties of surveying the general public. Since the culture requires that women interview women and men interview men, the field team has to have at least 45 percent women in order to have a gender-balanced sample. Afghan women interviewers do not travel or conduct interviews independently. They are accompanied by male family members who may or may not also be interviewers. The accompanying family member will converse with the male heads of household to ease the sampling and interviewing process.