Improving Population and Poverty Estimates with Citizen Surveys: Evidence from East Africa

The paper sets out to explore the possibility that citizen-led surveys provide a better coverage of populations and specifically of hard-to-reach poorer areas than the international standardized household surveys which are the basis for many of the estimates used in assessing progress toward meeting the MDGs and will be for the SDGs. This hypothesis is based on the argument that, the local volunteer enumerators of citizen-led surveys are likely to be more sensitive to the specificities of local population distribution and (recent) changes than those centrally trained; and may be more effective at reaching hard-to reach groups such as those nomadic groups and those in urban slums.