CivilNET leads the creation and publication of polls and surveys on public opinion on key happenings in Tobago. This is sometimes in collaboration with other social groups like the Tobago Council of Elders. This work has slowly added measurement of public opinion to the public domain for the good of the Tobago public, as well as political actors within and outside the local government, the Tobago House of Assembly.
The reports of these surveys are available on this website.
Contents
- Contents
- Theory of Change
- Survey of Tobago/THA Performance
- Survey on Tobago’s Attitudes Towards Autonomy
- Political Surveys
Theory of Change
Tobago CivilNET Believes that data is key to improving how Tobago and Trinidad are managed and how the public makes decisions. Also, public engagement should take place regularly, not only near to general or THA elections, as is the norm. We have embarked upon doing regular surveys to help fix this problem. See examples of our survey work below.
Survey of Tobago/THA Performance
These surveys began in 2022, in collaboration with the Tobago Council of Elders, one year after the change in THA leadership from the People’s National Movement (PNM) to the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP). Tobago CivilNET’s Council of Directors decided that these surveys should continue annually but we should be wary of releasing survey results too near to any election to avoid any perception of bias. Some of the survey result reports are published below.
Tobago Performance Survey Dec 2023- Dec 2024
In this third iteration, the performance survey has been transformed to measure the experience of Tobagonians (hence “Tobago Performance”, rather than “THA Performance”). As such questions rate three areas:
- Your Quality of Life in Tobago,
- Participatory Governance, and
- Your Contribution towards a better Tobago.
Accordingly, this evolved version of the Tobago Performance Survey keeps at the forefront, the words of the late Reginald Dumas that “our Right to Vote comes with our Responsibility to ensure Good Governance from those elected or nominated to represent us”. This surveys is in partnership with the Tobago Council of Elders and the Tobago Youth Council.
See the full report of that Survey below:
Tobago Residents’ Annual Survey of THA Performance Dec 2022- Dec 2023
The Second Annual Residents’ Survey of the THA’s performance (for December 2022 to December 2023), was held between 18th December, 2023 and 20th January, 2024. This was administered by Tobago CivilNET and the Tobago Council of Elders.
See the full report of that survey >HERE<.
Citizens’ Performance Review of THA Administration Dec 2021-Dec 2022
The Citizens’ Poll of the THA’s performance for the year December 2021 to December 2022, the first of its kind in Tobago, was held between December 4th, 2022 and December 17th, 2022. This poll was administered by Tobago CivilNET and the Tobago Council of Elders.
Summary Report
Results
Survey on Tobago’s Attitudes Towards Autonomy
Autonomy is a big topic in Tobago. See our main page on that HERE. As there was a lot of political leading of the discussion from several entities, with less direct publication of the opinions of the regular Tobago resident, we decided to poll the people directly and publish the results. See details below.
The survey was administered between September 1st and October 7th, 2023. See the full survey report below:
Political Surveys
In 2021, there was an unprecedented event in Tobago: a THA election resulted in a tie between the long standing incumbent – People’s National Movement (PNM), a party that’s older than the entire Independent country itself, and an upstart party – Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP). This led to changes in the representation in Tobago, many months of instability in the THA, many calls for compromise/partnership/new elections, and a new election 10 months later.
THA Election 2021: What Do The people Want?
Tobago CivilNET took the decision to poll the population on their direct views of this impasse. The unprecedented nature of this situation and the political implications resulted in one of the highest responses of any survey done.
Poll was administered from 17 February to 25 February 2021.
The Political State of Tobago Survey 2021
Months later, before any resolution was forthcoming, and other issues were still in the public domain (like Autonomy) CivilNET decided again to poll the people on their (evolved) views of the impasse and other political issues. The new results are below.
Tobago CivilNET 