The Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) is a nationally-representative panel survey of 10,000 South African individuals conducted every month. The same person is phoned each month and is asked a range of questions on their income and employment, their household welfare, receipt of grants, and about their knowledge and behavior related to COVID-19. There are six waves of the study, one per month from May to October 2020, and each participant receives a R20 airtime voucher per wave for participating. The aim is to provide monthly nationally-representative data on key outcomes such as unemployment, household income, child hunger and access to government grants. For the full questionnaire see here. If you are a survey participant/respondent please click here to find the full Q&A.
WHAT IS CRAM?
What is CRAM?
Is the sample nationally-representative?
Yes. The CRAM study received permission from the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) in the Presidency to use the mobile phone numbers available in the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS). NIDS is a nationally-representative panel study following the lives of the same 28,000 South Africans and those they live every two years since 2008. NIDS was conducted by the South African Labour Development Research Unit (SALDRU), who have agreed to conduct a special follow-up survey – CRAM – on the NIDS sample.
Do you have government support?
We have received strong support from high-level government officials from Presidency, National Treasury and the Department of Health. We have received formal letters of support from Tshediso Matona (Secretary of the National Planning Commission in Presidency), Mampho Modise (Deputy Director General in National Treasury), and Stanley Ntakumba (Acting Director General in the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in Presidency) and Yogan Pillay (Deputy Director General in the Department of Health).
Who are the researchers involved with CRAM?
The Principal Investigator of the CRAM study is Dr Nic Spaull from the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University. He is joined by eight co-investigators (Team Leads) who are Prof Dori Posel (Wits), Dr Nwabisa Makaluza (SU), Prof Reza Daniels (UCT), Prof Ronelle Burger (SU), Prof Rulof Burger (SU), Prof Servaas van der Berg (SU), Prof Vimal Ranchhod (UCT) and David Carel (SU). Each Team Lead is involved in one of the five working groups: (1) Sampling, (2) Labour and Firms, (3) Social Welfare, (4) Health & COVID-19, (5) Operations and NIDS.