Visite d'étude pour renforcer les capacités techniques et soutenir la
modernisation de l’Institut National de la Statistique (INS)

Organisée par le bureau de la Banque Mondiale en Tunisie, le Centre de
Données sur le Développement (C4D2) de la Banque Mondiale en Rome et le
Programme Alimentaire Mondial (PAM)

Study visit, to strengthen technical capacities and support the modernization
of the National Institute of Statistics (INS)

Organized by the World Bank office in Tunisia, the Center for Development
Data (C4D2) of the World Bank in Rome and the World Food Program (WFP)

Rome (Italy) 8-12 May 2023

                                          Final Report

The Study Visit (SV) has been developed through the point in the annexed agenda.
The discussion was carried out both on plenary (3) and in parallel sessions in working groups (2x2)
and it was lively and with a wide number of questions on the different topics.
In the first day of the SV, World Bank has presented the general framework of the SV and its
objectives and the related expectations. Then, the INS experts have illustrated the main features of
the households’ surveys on which the SV has been focused (that on income, expenditure and living
conditions, that l’Enquête Nationale sur le Budget, la Consommation et le Niveau de Vie des
Ménages (EBCNV) and the survey on labor force, that is l’Enquête Nationale sur la Population et
l’Emploi (ENE), together with the characteristics of CPI survey and of the short-term ones on
households.
In a large part of the afternoon, two parallel sessions have been held. One has been focused mainly
on the income module within the EBCNV and the other on the ongoing WB-INS joint analysis on the
labor market effects of drought shocks in Tunisia.
The second day has been entirely dedicated to phone surveys. WB experts have presented an
overview of strengths and weaknesses and of the different approaches to sampling of phone
surveys. After that World Bank and INS have illustrated the experience of the 5 waves of phone
surveys in Tunisia collected between April and October 2022 to assess the effects of Covid-19 on
households living conditions. Then the main characteristics de l’Enquête de Conjointure auprès les
Ménages have been discussed together with perspectives of their relaunch as CATI surveys and the
use of the call center established at INS with the economic contribution of World Bank.
The third day has been dedicated to visit the World Food Program (WFP). In the morning it has been
discussed Food Security assessment and analysis (food security concepts, analytical framework, and
measurement, type of evaluations and partnerships, etc.). In the afternoon real-time monitoring of

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food security by computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) has been presented and discussed
looking at different aspects (early warning and lean season monitoring, integration into government
and international food security information systems, CATI methodology, questionnaire, automated
data processing), and looking at country case study.
The morning of the fourth day has been focused on two presentations given by the World Bank: the
first one on the main issues, results and perspectives of innovation and modernization of the
Tunisian statistical office, the second one on the implementation in CATI and CAPI of the
questionnaires of the households’ surveys by using the Survey solution. In the afternoon two parallel
sessions have been taken place. One has been dedicated to the Italian methodology and the
fieldwork organization of HBS, the other has been a follow-up of the analysis of labor market in
Tunisia and its relationship with climate change that started in the first day.
The fifth day (plenary session) has been broken down into three main points: the first one has been
a follow-up of the implementation in CATI and CAPI of the questionnaires of the households’ surveys
by using Survey Solutions, the free software developed in the Data group of The World Bank; the
second one was linked to dissemination issues and European good practices on data dissemination;
the third point touched upon fieldwork organization of households’ surveys in Tunisia and possible
improvement. Afterwards the final part of the discussion was dedicated to summarizing the main
results of the SV and the perspectives of cooperation between WB and Tunisian INS that are
reported in the following paragraphs.

Main results of the SV and the perspectives of cooperation between WB and Tunisian INS
The main results of the SV in terms of possible innovations and perspectives of cooperation between
WB and INS are articulated into two blocks and a point on the fieldwork:
   1. The main possible axes of innovation for l’Enquête Nationale sur le Budget, la Consommation
      et le Niveau de Vie des Ménages (EBCNV), CPI and Labor Force Survey.
   2. The launch of high frequency surveys in the framework of a program of CATI survey using
      the call center within the INS, possibly starting from pilot surveys using the WFP
      Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI) module and the
      Enquête de Conjointure auprès les Ménages.

   1. Main possible axes of innovation for l’Enquête Nationale sur le Budget, la Consommation
      et le Niveau de Vie des Ménages (EBCNV)

The general objective is the implementation of some possible innovations, which feasibility has to
be further evaluated, in the new round scheduled in 2025, that can be summarized as follows:
   •   Revision of the questionnaire and of the data collection design, by organizing the survey
       through an initial interview/delivery of the diary/1 final interview and collection of the diary
       and implementing it in CAPI by Survey Solutions.
   •   In the first interview asking for households’ characteristics, dwelling, durable goods, health,
       education, participation in the labor market, income by components.
   •   Designing a diary only for food products and few others and no longer than 2 weeks.
   •   Improving the set of questions on income to well capture all the components (Canberra
       handbook as conceptual reference).
   •   Food and a few other high frequently purchased products in the diary (a couple of visits if
       the interviewer to help households to fill the diary).

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   •    In the final interview asking for all the other goods and services, ordered by reference period
        of purchase and by homogeneous group.
   •    Introduction of the COICOP 2018.

   2. Main possible axes of innovation for CPI survey

First, it is important to carry out an assessment of the current survey design, looking at:
    •   Organization and monitoring of the traditional data collection.
    •   Data production process and scheme of aggregation of the indices.
    •   Frequency of data collection to be fine-tuned.
    •   Updating the sample (specifically in terms of basket).
    •   Weights estimation (periodical update, reference consumption concept to implement
        Household Final Monetary Consumption Expenditure, HFMCE).
    •   Assessment of quality adjustment procedures.
Then, the design and the implementation of the use of Alternative Data Sources (ADS) has to be
defined starting from an analysis of the retail trade market by distributional channel (large-scale,
traditional, open markets, web, others). Then:
    •   For scanner data start negotiations with large-scale retail trade companies.
    •   Concerning web scraping start the test on some products mostly transacted on the web
        such as accommodation services and airfares.
    •   For Administrative data fine tune its current use and investigating how to extend their use.

   3. Main possible axes of innovation for Labor Force Survey

They can be summarized as follows:
   •    Support the analysis of the migration module.
   •    Considering the introduction of a panel component.
   •    Deepening the analysis of labor market and climate change starting with the inclusion of
        1997, 1999 LFS rounds and 2004 and 2014 census data, as well as internal migration.
        Heterogenous effects will be analyzed considering female workers, employment for the
        youth, sector unemployment and rural/urban employment.

   4. Launch a plan of high frequency surveys on households in the framework of a program of
      CATI survey using the call center within INS.
The starting point is the positive experience of phone surveys (5 waves in Tunisia to estimate the
Covid-19 impact). Therefore, the use of phone surveys could be relaunched to assess food security
and economic sentiment of households and switching to CATI the Enquête de Conjointure auprès les
Ménages (by using Survey Solutions) that implies:
   •    Revising the questionnaire and the sampling.
   •    Planning a monthly survey to estimate the evolution of households’ economic sentiment and
        quarterly modules to regularly deepen some specific aspects (living conditions, food
        security).
The start of the test of the call center could be a phone survey on food security in the second part
of 2023.

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A session of training on Survey Solution finalized to develop and implement a questionnaire to
achieve this first objective could be planned for September 2023 in the perspective of enhancing
capacity on Survey Solution to extend its use to other households’ surveys.

   •   Organization of the fieldwork and of the management of data collectors are emerged as
       crucial issues to be dealt with.




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