On the 15th of July, the CRAM study released the data for Wave 1 of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM). NIDS-CRAM is envisaged to be a five-wave, longitudinal survey of South African adults. The survey was implemented using computer assisted telephonic interviews (CATI). It is designed to inform stakeholders and social partners about the impact of the lockdowns associated with National Government’s declaration of a State of National Disaster due to COVID-19.
NIDS-CRAM forms part of a broader study called the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM), which is funded by The Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropy, the Federated Employer’s Mutual (FEM) Education Fund and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Together with Principal Investigator Dr Nic Spaull (RESEP, Stellenbosch University), the Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) of the study are drawn from three universities: Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand.
NIDS-CRAM Wave 1 was based on a subsample of 7,073 adults taken from Wave 5 of the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). In order to get the survey started as soon as it was understood that lockdowns would be implemented, a team of over 30 researchers from a number of South African universities participated in the development of the survey. SALDRU was commissioned to implement the survey.
From the SALDRU team, Reza Daniels was the Co-PI responsible for data production and quality control, while Vimal Ranchhod was the Co-PI responsible for the labour section of the questionnaire. Tim Brophy and Kim Ingle, as well as their respective teams, were responsible for ensuring that data production and quality control were run efficiently. The project benefitted tremendously from their cumulative wisdom, which was earned after having spent several years in similar roles in the implementation of earlier waves of NIDS. As with all previous waves of NIDS, the NIDS-CRAM data is available free of charge to any user who registers with DataFirst at the following link. NIDS-CRAM supporting documentation is available on DataFirst’s Open Data Portal, as well as the NIDS-CRAM section of the NIDS website.
Once data production was completed, a team of researchers were then responsible for analyzing the first wave of the data. An overview of the findings are available here, and the full reports are available at the CRAM Survey website here. The major findings were released to the press on the 15th of July and attracted over 250 media mentions by 27 July.
Several other Saldrupians were also involved in various aspects of the project, including Murray Leibbrandt, Cally Ardington, Nicola Branson, Andrew Kerr and Brendan Maughan-Brown. SALDRU will continue to implement the survey, which is designed to be implemented at least up to the end of 2020. We will keep you posted about the results of the survey as each wave is released. Stay tuned!