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FREQUENCY LISTING

Frequency listing is a statistically robust survey method for identifying competent low-level community leaders (called notab) and/or informants. When dependable lists are available (for example, a tax role or census) or points of communal activity (such as a market), freq-listing can be accomplished by censusing or sampling people who are on the list or visiting the market. Where no list or appropriate venue is available, a household survey can accomplish the same task. Just as with most baseline surveys, a grid is used to systematically and randomly select GPS points distributed throughout the targeted activity area. These points are selected in Google Earth. The researcher then zooms in and moves the points to the nearest visible households. The GPS coordinates are then loaded into a GPS map app installed on tablet-telephones. The surveyors then use the tablets to locate the GPS points whereupon they interview male and female heads of the 5 households closest to each point. The resulting notab database provides a network of community leaders that can be engaged to accomplish successful development interventions. In areas where there is cellular telephone service, as in most of Haiti, this means that an aid agency can subsequently perform surveys for a fraction of the time and cost of traditional surveys as former respondents can be re-contacted from the office on a regular basis. The information gathered can be used to routinely populate Excel dashboard and automated reports to create an inexpensive and highly reliable monitoring and evaluation system.

Frequency Listing
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