“The Watigueleya Kèlê quantitative survey” – Jan. – Mar. 2021

From 1 February to 17 March 2021, a quantitative survey was conducted as part of the Watigueleya Kèlê action-research programme, which aims to understand and compare local resilience strategies when facing socio-ecological stresses and disasters over the long term, and to value and equitably include these strategies in governance and decision-making in Mali, Senegal and Guinea. The survey consists of a Household component and an Individual component. It took place in several villages in Guinea, Mali and Senegal (Bossoko, Damaro, Mandou, Banzana, Bougarilla, Mozona, Bandafassi, Missirah Tabadiang and Wassadou Dépôt). Interviewers surveyed 864 households (representing 10,480 people), and then conducted individual interviews (including 478 men and 501 women).

In each country, the surveys were carried out in situ by interviewers and a supervisor who travelled from village to village. The interviewers and supervisors received prior training, a manual and the necessary equipment to carry out the data collection in the field.   Careful attention was paid to the issue of informed consent and data protection of respondents, and the data was anonymised.  In the first instance, a community survey was carried out, through a semi-structured interview with the village chief or other prominent people (“resource persons”), in order to gather information on the village’s infrastructure, relations with the authorities, the potential impact of the climate on activities, etc. In parallel, the interviewers conducted a comprehensive household survey using a questionnaire. The people interviewed in the individual questionnaires were drawn at random from among the members of the households aged at least 18 years (50 men and 50 women per village); these interviews, carried out using questionnaires on a tablet (CAPI method), focused more specifically on the facts, practices and opinions of individuals in relation to climate change.

For the project and the villages, the aim was to obtain a statistical framework for :

• the size and structure of the population, its socio-demographic, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics
• the population’s access to resources, particularly natural resources (water, land, forestry)
• shocks, particularly climatic ones, perceived by the villagers over the last ten years and the resilience strategies put in place.

Subsequently, qualitative field surveys will be conducted.