Towards Better Data for Better Outcomes

Caz Tebbutt, founder of Tebbutt Research, is a co-author of a peer-reviewed paper on a lean survey tool developed to measure digital and financial literacy in the Pacific and beyond.

The work grew from a major UNCDF and Tebbutt Research study conducted across Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu. The study produced baseline evidence on how people understand, access and use digital and financial services, and how those capabilities vary across different groups in the community.

Read the published article

Project details
Publication: Towards Better Data for Better Development Outcomes: A “lean” DFL survey tool to measure digital and financial literacy globally
Journal: The International Review of Financial Consumers
Authors: Jessica Massie, Caz Tebbutt, Adele Atkinson and Yaa Asamoah Boateng
Countries covered: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu
Topic: Digital financial literacy, financial capability, digital financial services, consumer behaviour
Supporting partners: UNCDF, European Union, Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, and the Governments of Australia and New Zealand
Tebbutt role: Co-funded, localised, implemented and analysed the survey results; responsible for data collection, data analysis and reporting

Digital and financial literacy in the Pacific

Digital financial services are becoming more important across the Pacific. Mobile phones, online banking, mobile money, digital payments and app-based services can help people send and receive money, save, make payments, access services and participate more fully in the economy.

But access to technology does not automatically mean people can use these services confidently or safely.

People need to understand financial products, know how to manage money, recognise risk, protect personal information, assess digital services and know where to go when something goes wrong. These capabilities are not evenly distributed. They vary by country, gender, income, education, location, age and employment status.

The purpose of the study was to measure these differences in a practical way, using a tool that could be implemented across multiple countries while still making sense in local communities.

What the survey measured

The survey measured digital and financial literacy across four broad areas:

• Digitalisation
• Financial competencies
• Digital financial competencies
• Digital financial service outcomes

This included knowledge, attitudes, confidence, access and behaviour.

The questions explored how people use phones and digital tools, how they manage money, how familiar they are with formal financial services, how they understand risk, and whether they have the confidence and capability to use digital financial services safely.

The tool was designed to be lean. That was important. Long, complex surveys can be expensive to run, difficult for respondents, and hard for stakeholders to interpret. A shorter tool allows data to be collected more efficiently while still producing findings that governments, development partners and service providers can use.

Key findings

The results showed moderate levels of digital and financial literacy across the countries surveyed, with substantial room for improvement.

The findings also showed that digital and financial literacy were not evenly distributed. Scores were generally higher among people with higher incomes, people working outside the home, men, urban residents and people with higher levels of formal schooling, although the patterns varied between countries.

This matters because averages can hide important gaps.

A country may appear to have moderate overall levels of digital and financial literacy, while some groups remain significantly less confident, less connected or less able to use services safely. For policy makers and programme designers, these differences are often the most important part of the evidence.

The study helped identify where support may be needed most, including for women, rural communities, lower-income groups, people with less formal education, MSMEs, youth and other groups that may face barriers to full participation in the digital economy.

Questionnaire localisation

The questionnaire needed to allow for significant localisation, including local terms, names and experiences.

This is one of the most important lessons in Pacific research. A survey can use a global framework, but the questions still need to make sense to respondents. They need to be understood when read aloud by an interviewer. They need to fit the way people talk about phones, money, accounts, transfers, risk, scams, savings and financial decisions in their own communities.

This is where the local experience of Tebbutt Research was critical to ensure the instrument worked well in real Pacific settings. Localisation is not cosmetic. It affects whether respondents understand the questions, whether interviewers can administer them consistently, and whether the data collected is meaningful.

Multi-country survey implementation

The survey was implemented across seven countries:

• Fiji
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Timor-Leste
• Tonga
• Vanuatu

The countries differ in geography, language, financial systems, mobile coverage, digital access, population distribution and research conditions. A method that works well in one country may need careful adaptation in another.

Tebbutt Research was responsible for data collection, data analysis and reporting. The work drew on the company’s long-established Pacific research infrastructure, including local field capability, CATI and CAPI systems, multi-country project management and experience conducting research in urban, rural and remote settings.

The study used interviewer-administered surveys, which was important for inclusion. A fully digital survey would have risked excluding people with lower digital access or lower confidence using online tools. For a study about digital inclusion, the research method itself needed to avoid excluding the very people whose experiences were most important to understand.

Data analysis and reporting

Tebbutt Research was responsible for data collection, data analysis and reporting.

That role matters because the value of a survey is not only in the number of interviews completed. The data needs to be cleaned, checked, weighted, interpreted and presented in a way that helps governments, development partners and service providers understand what is happening in the community.

For this study, the results showed moderate levels of digital and financial literacy across the countries surveyed, with important differences by gender, income, education, location and employment status. These differences help identify where support is most needed and where digital financial services may not yet be reaching people safely or effectively.

The reporting also needed to make the evidence usable. Development research is most valuable when it can be translated into action: better programme design, better targeting, better communication and better policy decisions.

Why the results matter

Digital financial literacy is closely linked to financial inclusion.

People who lack confidence with digital tools may avoid useful services. People who do not understand financial products may make decisions that increase risk. People who are unaware of fraud, privacy risks or complaints channels may be more vulnerable when using digital platforms.

The study provides baseline evidence that can help governments and development partners track change over time.

It also supports more targeted interventions. Rather than assuming that all people need the same kind of training or support, the data helps identify which groups face specific barriers and what those barriers look like.

This is especially important in the Pacific, where small populations, dispersed communities and uneven infrastructure can make broad assumptions unreliable.

A personal contribution from Caz Tebbutt

Caz Tebbutt’s role as a co-author reflects the practical and intellectual contribution she has made to Pacific research over many years.

Caz founded Tebbutt Research with a strong commitment to research that works in the real conditions of the Pacific. That means research that is technically sound, but also practical, culturally aware and grounded in local experience.

This study reflects that approach.

The survey tool was not simply imported and applied unchanged. It needed to be localised, implemented and analysed in ways that respected the realities of the countries being studied. That is the kind of work Tebbutt Research has been doing across the region for more than three decades.

A Pacific contribution to global research practice

Although the survey was implemented in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, the tool was designed with wider relevance in mind.

That is an important point.

The Pacific is often treated as a difficult place to conduct research because of geography, infrastructure and cost. Those challenges are real, but they are not the whole story. The Pacific can also be a place where strong research tools are developed, tested and refined.

This work shows how Pacific-based research experience can contribute to global development practice.

The study produced evidence for countries in the region, but it also contributed to a lean tool that can help measure digital and financial literacy more broadly.

Supporting partners

The work was undertaken through UNCDF partnerships with the European Union, the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, and the Governments of Australia and New Zealand.

Tebbutt Research contributed significant cost sharing and was responsible for data collection, data analysis and reporting.

This combination of international partnership and Pacific-based research capability is important. It brings together development objectives, technical expertise, local knowledge and operational infrastructure.

For Tebbutt Research, this is exactly where the company’s experience is strongest: helping turn complex research questions into evidence that can be used by policy makers, development partners and service providers.

Published article

The full peer-reviewed article is available here:

Towards Better Data for Better Development Outcomes: A “lean” DFL survey tool to measure digital and financial literacy globally