Collecting data from women and girls remotely: lessons from the field

The COVID-19 pandemic is not gender neutral. One year on, the impacts on the socio-economic, health and mental wellbeing of women and girls persist and continue to vary for the most vulnerable, including women and girls. With the onset of the pandemic, data on its impact came largely from remote data collection methods, including phone surveys. However, these methods were replete with several challenges. In low-income settings women are less likely to own phones or even be able to recharge their mobile phones with talk time; are more unwilling to answer unsolicited survey calls, or respond to questions that they may be deemed sensitive particularly if other members of the household are also present while responding to these surveys. This panel discussion aims to navigate the challenges faced by research organisations and NGOs in collecting data remotely, the measurement biases that were encountered, and how survey design and its implementation need to evolve to capture the gendered impacts remotely. The panel aims to provide a way forward for organisations to make research and survey design more gender responsive.