Four rounds of biannual surveys have now been carried out. The surveys have some distinctive features, which should be described at the outset. The basic idea remained the same throughout. AUICK wished to hear what urban administrators themselves had to say about their problems, their needs, and the work they had done to address their problems. Thus the survey should be organized to elicit information from the administrators themselves. There was also some experimentation with the form and content of the surveys to attempt to identify an optimal pattern.

Resource limitations indicated that the surveys should be self-administered. In the first three rounds, questionnaires were to be addressed to the chief elected officer, the Mayor, or the highest appointed official, a Chief Urban Administrator.*3 For the fourth round, fewer countries were included, with the idea to obtain information from more than one administrator in each of the selected cities. AUICK undertook the translation and distribution to the heads of Japanese cities. For other countries, AUICK, with the assistance of UNFPA field offices and the members of the IAC, requested the assistance of an "access person. "This might be an academic known for work and expertise on urban issues, or a member of a central government agency. The "access person" duplicated the questionnaires, had them translated where necessary, distributed them and collected the completed questionnaires and forwarded them to Kobe for analysis. The numbers of countries and cities covered in the four rounds of "The Inquiry" are shown in the following table.

*3. In Japan the questionnaire was completed by the Chief of the City Planning and Management Division.