Team One leader Bryan Chryson S Tahili conducting household listing and awareness at Irrigila.
Team one members of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, HIES, 2024-2025 in Western Province are currently in Irrigila, Vella Lavella Island conducting enumeration as the survey prepare to wind down towards mid-October 2025.
The team arrived at Irrigila late in the afternoon on Monday 11th August 2025 and conducted their household listing on Tuesday but did not start enumeration until Thursday morning because there was a death in the village.
The six-member team including their team leader, enumerators and boat driver have been making the rounds in Gizo, Simbo, Ranogga and Vella since the survey began in October last year.
While the survey is now in its eleventh month, the team remains united and strong as they look forward to its completion.
Team Leader Bryan Chryson S Tahili said the weather has been one of their major challenges through-out the survey.
“I’m sure that is the case with others. We work in areas where there are very strong currents and high waves so we have encountered very challenging weather conditions when we travel. It has not been easy for the team.
“It has also impacted our schedule, often delaying us from working according to it.”
Mr Tahili continued to relay his experience in leading the team.
“I noticed with the first version of the questionnaire at the start of the survey, it took the enumerators a long time to complete their interviews. However, after the questionnaire was reviewed and adjusted it was easier and our interview times were shorter. We would complete our interviews in just two hours or less.
“Another issue I would like to highlight and I am sure other teams will experience this too is the GPS. At times it would work well and other times it does not work.
Mr Tahili’s team has been working in both the urban and rural areas and noted the difference in how they were received.
“In the rural areas, people instantly perceive that we are associated with their political members and would raise their grievances against them. So we make it a point to explain to them immediately and clearly when we arrive that we are not there for politics, we are simply carrying out the work of the National Statistics Office on behalf of the National Government.
“We are grateful for the assistance of the Statistics Office through-out the survey and hope for more timely responses in the future to issues we raise.
“We look forward to completing the survey and hope to continue to work together with the office on future projects.”
Irrigila is the team’s second last Enumeration Area. Their final EA is Paramatta village also in Vella.
The HIES is conducted by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office under the Capacity Building in Statistics and Audit, (CAPSA) Project in partnership with World Bank.
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