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Elephants Can't Jump
Ensuring brand initiatives work in practice as well as in theory. To have marketplace impact, we believe every research assignment should consist of three elements consumer exploration or validation, within a competitive context, generating commercial outputs.
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Firefish Ltd
29 full time staff, operating in all corners of the globe, on all manner of projects. No methodology is squashed to fit. We approach each brief with fresh eyes and minds, to make sure you get the most out of your research, helping your brand move forward.
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Grass Roots
Grass Roots is one of Europe's largest performance improvement companies. Established in 1980, Grass Roots UK is the founding company of a group with offices and partners operating in 15 countries around the world.
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DIGITAL-MR
In addition to Social Media Research (Web Listening) DigitalMRs solutions also include community panels, access panels, Web usability and a distinct focus on qualitativeresearch online.
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An Introduction to Sudan / South Sudan
On 9th July 2011, The Republic of Sudan, until then the largest country in Africa and the Arab world, split into two uneven parts - the smaller, South Sudan is still, as of June 2013, the world's newest country. Divided in two by the River Nile, Sudan has a history that stretches back to antiquity, often alongside Egypt's history as the two countries had an on-again off-again relationship covering centuries. Formerly a British colony, Sudan gained independence in 1956, and has been in a state of civil, ethnic or religous war ever since. During the course of these protracted conflicts, roughly two million people have died as a result of the wars, with a further four million displaced at least once. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Africa
1 current African job:
GOVERNMENT: Federal presidential republic
AREA: 2,505,813 sq km
POPULATION: 43,939,598 (July 2010 est.)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Arabic, English
Some business and general info
The Market Research Industry
Trade and Industry in Sudan / South Sudan
A little More Knowledge?
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On 9th July 2011, The Republic of Sudan, until then the largest country in Africa and the Arab world, split into two uneven parts - the smaller, South Sudan is still, as of June 2013, the world's newest country. Divided in two by the River Nile, Sudan has a history that stretches back to antiquity, often alongside Egypt's history as the two countries had an on-again off-again relationship covering centuries. Formerly a British colony, Sudan gained independence in 1956, and has been in a state of civil, ethnic or religous war ever since. During the course of these protracted conflicts, roughly two million people have died as a result of the wars, with a further four million displaced at least once.
The most recent civil war ended in 2005 with a truce reliant on an independence referendum in 2011. However the ruling National Congress (NCP) established itself as the sole political party in the state and has supported the use of recruited Arab militias in guerrilla warfare, such as in the ongoing conflict in Darfur. Since then thousands of people have been displaced and killed, and the need for humanitarian care in Darfur has attracted worldwide attention. The conflict has been described as genocide.
GDP: $92.52 billion (2009 est.) - $2,200 per capita(2009 est.)
Religions Sunni Muslim 70% (in north), Christian 5% (mostly in south and Khartoum), indigenous beliefs 25%
Currency: Sudanese Pound (SDG) - No current exchange rate available
Telephone Code: +249
Exports from Sudan were worth $7.56 billion - made up of oil, cotton, and agricultural products, largely to Asian countries. Imports were worth slightly more at $8.25 billion comprising of food, chemicals, textiles and various other goods from a number of countries in Asia and Africa.
Prior to splitting, Sudan had the 17th fastest growing economy in the world - although it faces huge problems created mainly by an extremely low per capita output. There are large oil reserves in the country, production currently stands at over half a million barrels a day alongside a large number of other rich mineral sources. Agriculture production remains Sudan's most important sector, employing 80% of the workforce and contributing 39% of GDP, but most farms remain rain-fed and susceptible to drought. Instability,adverse weather, and weak world agricultural prices-ensures that much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years.
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laurence@mrweb.com
While exciting, conducting research in South Sudan presents several logistical and security obstacles: local capacity is minimal, access to certain areas may be limited due to tribal conflict or armed militia activity and fieldwork time, especially in rural areas, may be prolonged as a result of underdeveloped transportation networks.
A day in the life of an interviewer in South Sudan often involves needing to overcome one or several of these obstacles. Interviewers work in teams and travel together from one sampling point to another. Upon arrival in a new sampling point, teams must visit the local administrator or chief to announce their presence, receive a report on any issues that may affect the ability to work, and obtain official permission to survey. Oftentimes these local administrators refuse to cooperate and teams may be detained for hours or days until a county commission is able to intervene and produce documents that show that the teams have received all necessary work permits.
Once formal permission has been obtained from the local administrator, teams must manage fieldwork logistics and determine the most effective and safe way to complete all households within a sampling point. If an area has been experiencing increased conflict due to cattle raiding, the presence of LRA forces from Uganda, or fighting with (North) Sudanese armed forces, teams must abide by a curfew, which limits their ability to work long days and thus delays completion of the sampling point.
Throughout work in a specific sampling point, supervisors are asked to maintain communication with their interviewers to ensure that team members remain safe, and also with the fieldwork manager in Juba, to provide updates on progress. In most rural areas of South Sudan, phone service is not available and teams experience network connectivity difficulties. In emergency situations, this often means that the team supervisor must pay a local villager to drive him or her via bicycle or motorcycle to the closest urban area to make and receive phone calls.
After teams have finished work in a designated sampling point, they immediately move onwards to the next area for surveying. The lack of developed transportation infrastructure in South Sudan often means that teams must travel on bad roads and take hours or days to travel short distances. During the rainy season, flooding makes these trips even more difficult. Team cars often get stuck in the mud. In areas with extremely bad flooding, teams often find entire roads covered in water and impassable.
All of these obstacles require creative solutions and ORB International, working with our local team, has been able to develop these solutions and learn from our experience to complete two polls in South Sudan, one with national coverage.
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