World Bank : Monitoring COVID-19 Impact on Households in Kenya

The high-frequency phone survey on the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 in Kenya is implemented by the World Bank, in collaboration with the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the University of California, Berkeley.

The data is collected by phone interviews (1) with households from three different groups. The first group of households is drawn randomly from a subset of the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey in 2015/16. The second group is reached by Random Digit Dialing, whereby phone numbers potentially existing in Kenya are randomly generated. These first two groups cover urban and rural areas and are designed to be representative of the population of Kenya using cell phones. The third group consists of refugees registered with UNHCR and living in refugee camps as well as urban areas.

The questionnaire covers a range of topics including knowledge of COVID-19 and mitigation measures, changes in behavior in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, employment, income, food security, access to educational activities and health services, subjective well-being, perceptions of the government's response, and coping strategies.

Data collection started in May 2020 and households are called every two months for five survey rounds, to track the impact of the pandemic over time. The subgroup of households interviewed in each week is representative of the surveyed population, allowing the analysis of weekly trends as in the above dashboard.