21st Session of the African Commission on Agricultural Statistics Experience of Ethiopia in Utilizing PDA for Price Data Collection and Timely Dissemination Samia Zekaria Gutu Director General Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia October 2009, Accra, Ghana.

Background Geographically, Ethiopia is situated in the horn of Africa between 3 and 5 degrees north latitude and 33 and 48 degrees east longitude. The total area of the country is about 1.1 million square kilometers. Total counted population of the country on May 2007was reported to be million with annual growth rate of 2.6. Ethiopia is administratively sub-divided into nine regional states and two city administrations.

Background (cont’d) The topographic features range from the highest peak at Ras Dashen, (4,550 meters above sea level), down to the Affar Depression at 110 meters below sea level. The climatic condition of the country varies with the topography, ranging from 47 to 10 degrees celsius. Ethiopia is a home to about 80 ethnic groups that vary in population size from more than 27 million to less than 1000 persons. In general, Ethiopia is the second largest countries in Africa in terms of population size and total area with diversified culture, linguistic and large ethnic compositions.

Historical Development of Price Survey in Ethiopia Monthly retail price data collection of urban areas first started in the capital city of the country, Addis Ababa, together with HICES of 1963 with the objective of producing consumer price index (CPI). Even though the scope and coverage of price survey and geographical coverage of the survey was expanded to cover all regional capitals stage by stage, the CPI was limited only to Addis Ababa until 1997.

Historical Development of Price Survey in Ethiopia (Cont’d) The retail price survey of rural areas was launched together with the RIHSP in 1980/81 As part of the RIHSP, the price survey was carried out on quarterly basis starting from May 1981 to July 1987 on 500 sample sites. Between 1986/87 and 1996/97 the survey has been conducted in about 760 EAs on monthly basis. I997/98 the numbers of EAs to be covered by the survey were substantially increased to 1420 as we start producing national CPI in 1998.

Coverage of Price Surveys The retail price survey covers about 400 items on monthly basis in collecting data of goods and services in selected outlets in which Consumer Price Index (CPI)is computed. The monthly producers’ price survey of the rural area covers major agricultural commodities, the data are collected from farmers in which Producers’ Price Index (PPI) is calculated.

Producing Country Level CPI Considering the manageability of price data to be collected and without affecting the quality of the resulting CPI, numbers of rural EAs were cut down from 1420 to 446 EAs starting from 1998 as we started producing country level, urban and rural level CPIs. It is to be noted that in the rural areas of the country both producers and retail p rice surveys data have been collected processed and disseminated to users.

Producing Regional Level CPIs Further improvement has been made on the sample size of retail price survey starting from 2001 by shifting to more representative markets outlets in dropping many remote rural markets. The retail price survey data collection had been restricted and basically focused on a market based survey approach by selecting 119 representative market outlets. As a result, unnecessary time lag in the production of the CPIs has been achieved in producing eleven regional and country level indices.

Collecting Retail Price Data Using PDA The CSA has been collecting and disseminating price data using the traditional means of data collection i.e. questionnaire based system where field enumerators use to collect the price data. The CSA has deployed PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) to facilitate the price data collection and electronic transfer from the field to its head office.

Possibility to Load local Fonts The data is entered in to the PDA by means of a touch screen using a specially designed touch pen for the purpose. Files are created, saved and retrieved like any other computer. The questionnaire of price data format has been pre- loaded on the PDA. It was possible to load a local font that enables the enumerator to retrieve the questionnaire written in Amharic (local language).

Importance of Pilot Exercise During the pilot exercise both the traditional hard copy questionnaire and PDA were used simultaneously. The data collected on PDA and the hard copy questionnaires were compared to check whether the entry errors were tolerable and enumerators could handle it effectively. The result of the comparison revealed some minor problems that need be corrected before applying the PDA as a standard data collection tool.

Timeliness of Data Dissemination In the first implementation phase of pilot exercise price data from five CSA branch offices has been transferred to head office within two working days after collection. The full deployment of PDAs to 119 retail price markets in all 25 CSA branch offices is expected to reduce data processing time by three weeks. In order to further reduce data processing time at the HQ an automated excel spreadsheet has been developed. This facilitates market price data cleaning and further reduces the time from data collection to data dissemination on the web.

Advantages of PDA The pilot tests showed that data quality improves when managed closer to data generation in the field. If properly used, the PDA is much more advantageous than the traditional paper based questionnaires in terms of cost, timeliness and the quality of data. Since all the basic edits like range checks can be developed in the system, it gives an opportunity to make the necessary corrections right in the field while the enumerator is doing data collection, this in turn will reduce the non sampling error.

Adopting PDAs for Other Surveys Duplicating thousands of pages of questionnaires will not be necessary in future. It is envisaged that this experience will also be extended to other data collection activities of other surveys by introducing latest version of PDA called Ultra-mobile computers in future. Experiences of other countries like Brazil, Mexico and Cape Verde showed that they have used the PDAs for other surveys including for collecting data for their Population and Housing Censuses.

Observed Challenges in Using PDA Currently, the PDAs need to be charged after every two hours of work. In places where electricity is not available it may pose a problem to work for longer hours in a day. The other challenge was to obtain solar powered PDA in which the data collectors need to carry extra batteries to continue the day’s work. Since the technology is imported and is not a local material, availability of PDA could be a problem unless a good stock is purchased. The enumerator’s capability in terms of modest mathematics and computer skills is very important.

Price Data Dissemination Besides posting monthly CPI and PPI on website, the CSA has made available its price database online. This would help data users to have access to any particular commodity price data dating back to 1997 in a given market in any particular year and month. This system runs on an SQL based database and is made available online through CSA’s official website ( Through its simple search facility, a user can easily get a time series data on prices of commodities within and across years, market places or specific months of interest.

Price Data Dissemination (cont’d) The online retail price database is currently presented as three surveys. Survey-1 lists price data for the year Ethiopian Calendar Survey-2 lists price data for the year Ethiopian Calendar Survey-3 lists price data for the year onward Ethiopian Calendar Currently Ethiopian Calendar now is 2002

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