Abstract

The objective of the three-year Nepal Household Risk and Vulnerability panel survey is to provide the Government of Nepal with empirical evidence on the patterns of exposure to shocks at the household level and on the vulnerability of households' welfare to these shocks. It covers 6,000 households and 400 communities in non-metropolitan areas of Nepal.

The survey helps address the following research questions: - What significant adverse events (both anticipated and unanticipated) are faced by households during a given year? - What strategies do households employ, and what systems of informal support do they rely on (ex-ante and ex-post) to cope with these events? - How are households' short- and medium-term welfare affected by these events? - What formal government assistance do households receive? Is it sufficient to help them cope?

Geographic coverage

A random PPS sample of all non-metropolitan areas in Nepal, where 'non-metropolitan' is as defined by the 2010 Census. The sampling followed the district/VDC administrative structure existing until 2017.

Analysis unit

Households Community (ward)

Universe

All households in non-metropolitan areas per the 2010 Census definition, excluding households in the Kathmandu valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts).

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Frequency of data collection

The data was collected annually for three waves.

Sampling procedure

The sample frame was all households in non-metropolitan areas per the 2010 Census definition, excluding households in the Kathmandu valley (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts). The country was segmented into 11 analytical strata, defined to correspond to those used in the NLSS III (excluding the three urban strata used there). The allocation of districts to strata are indicated in the Section_0 file of each wave. To increase the concentration of sampled households, 50 of the 75 districts in Nepal were selected with probability proportional to size (the measure of size being the number of households). PSUs were selected with probability proportional to size from the entire list of wards in the 50 selected districts, one stratum at a time. The number of PSUs per stratum is proportional to the stratum's population share and corresponds closely to the allocations used in the LFS-II and NLSS-III (adjusted for different overall numbers of PSUs in those surveys). In each of the selected PSUs (administrative wards), survey teams compiled a list of households in the ward based on existing administrative records and cross-checked with local leaders. The number of households shown in the list was compared to the ward population in the 2010 Census, adjusted for likely population growth. Where the listed population deviated by more than 10% from the projected population based on the census data, the team conducted a full listing of households in the ward. 15 households were selected at random each ward list for interviewing, and a further 5 households were selected as potential replacements.

Sampling deviation

During the fieldwork, one PSU in Lapu VDC was inaccessible due to weather, and was replaced by a ward in Hastichaur VDC using PPS sampling on that stratum (excluding the already selected PSUs). All other sampled PSUs were reached and retained throughout the three-year study period.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

Community Questionnaire: The community questionnaire was fielded to a senior community representative at the VDC level in each of the 400 PSUs. The purpose of the community questionnaire was to obtain further details on access to services in each PSU, to gather information on shocks at the community level, and to collect market price data. The questionnaire included the following 6 modules:

• Respondent details
• Community characteristics
• Access to facilities
• Educational facilities
• Community shocks, household shocks
• Market price

Household Questionnaire: The style of questions for the household questionnaire was kept similar to those used in the NLSS-III questionnaire for comparability reasons. In some cases, new modules needed to be developed. The shocks questionnaire was developed by the World Bank team. A food security module was added based on the design recommended by USAID, and a psychosocial questionnaire was also developed by social development specialists in the World Bank. The section on government and other assistance was also redesigned to cover a broader range of programs and elicit information on details such as experience with enrollment and frequency of payment. The household questionnaire included the following 16 modules:

• Informed consent
• Education
• Health
• Housing and access to facilities
• Food expenses and home production
• Non-food expenditures and inventory of durable goods
• Jobs and time use
• Wage jobs
• Farming and livestock
• Non-agriculture enterprises/activities
• Migration
• Credit, savings, and financial assets
• Private assistance
• Public assistance
• Shocks
• Anthropometrics (less than 5 years)
• Perception on respondent intent and attention

Cleaning operations

After the data collection was complete, data cleaning started in HQ. During data cleaning the following actions were carried out:

• Different Versions of HH Questionnaires were appended
• Variables were labelled
• Data exported to STATA
• Responses were checked under possible responses (by do files) and extreme values were verified and checked by back check-calls
• Answers to open ended questions were translated

Cleaned data set was submitted to the World Bank Team for further analysis.

Response rate

Response rates were high, with 5,654 (94%) of the 6,000 Wave 1 households participating in all three waves. In Wave 2, a sample of 6,005 households were interviewed, of which 5,835 (97%) were households from Wave 1, and 165 (3%) were new households added to replace Wave 1 households that could not be reached. Additionally, five households that had split since Wave 1 were also interviewed. In Wave 3, a sample of 6,051 households were interviewed. The number was higher because some households interviewed in Wave 1 but not in Wave 2 were reached again in Wave 3. Of the 6,051 households, 192 were replacement households and four were split households. The majority of non-response was explained by respondents not being located or having migrated.

Data collected at the end of 2018 to assess program progress in the far-west and mid-west regions of Nepal. The data set was generated by interviewing three samples of program participants in all 14 working districts: goat farmers, commercial vegetable farmers, and cereal farmers. Topics of the survey include agricultural commodities, farming seasons, area, production, applied technologies, sales, loss, and decision makers for technology and sales.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) is a ten-year (2015-2025) research programme, funded by UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), that seeks to combine longitudinal data collection and a mixed-methods approach to understand the lives of adolescents in particularly marginalized regions of the Global South, and to uncover 'what works' to support the development of their capabilities over the course of the second decade of life, when many of these individuals will go through key transitions such as finishing their education, starting to work, getting married and starting to have children.
GAGE undertakes longitudinal research in seven countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Rwanda), Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal) and the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine). Sampling adolescent girls and boys aged between 10‐19‐year olds, the quantitative survey follows a global total of 18,000 adolescent girls and boys, and their caregivers and explores the effects that programme have on their lives. This is substantiated by in‐depth qualitative and participatory research with adolescents and their peers. Its policy and legal analysis work stream studies the processes of policy change that influence the investment in and effectiveness of adolescent programming.
Further information, including publications, can be found on the Overseas Development Institute GAGE website.

Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence: Nepal Baseline, 2017-2018 includes a sample of 1,687 girls aged 12-14 years in 40 randomly selected clusters within two districts in Nepal. This sample includes 580 girls enrolled in Grade 6 and followed to Grade 8 who will help to evaluate the impact of the Room to Read (RtR) Girl's Education Program (GEP). The research sample, composed of both randomly sampled and purposely selected adolescents and their families, was recruited during 2017 and 2018 in the regions of Nuwakot and Tanahun in Nepal. Further information about the research site, sample selection, and data collection process is available in the documentation.

Main Topics:

This study evaluates the impact of a school-based program on adolescent girls’ educational achievement and capabilities.

The dataset includes information from the Adult Female (AR), Core/Child Respondent (CR), Household (HH) and School (SC) questionnaires and variables are annotated with these abbreviations to indicate the questionnaire source. Topics covered include household information, assets, children, goal setting, aspirations, gender attitudes and norms, group behaviour, opinions and decisions, mobility, social networks, educational experiences, life skills, marriage, time allocation, internet, communication, technology, safe and enabling environment, civic engagement, reference groups and role models, and school information.

This research developed a methodological protocol that allows the triangulation of accelerometer data with time use and food intakes in rural settings of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Household and individual surveys were administrated to 120 individuals in rural Ghana (Upper West Region), India (Telangana State) and Nepal (Province #3). The data collection spanned from June 2017 to November 2018 and participants were invited to wear a medical-graded accelerometer device (ActiGraph GT3X+) throughout the day for four full non-consecutive weeks across an agricultural season. Raw accelerometer data has been archived at one-second interval. Daily individual questionnaires collected information on time use and food intake. Datasets can be used as stand-alone, yet richer analysis can be done linking the various sources of information. Such set of data opens potential new avenues to accurately measure energy expenditure in rural livelihood, thereby complementing an important part of human health and nutrition research in LMICs.

This research aimed at developing methods and protocols for generating reliable human energy expenditure profiles that can be used in a variety of agricultural settings in developing countries. The research was carried out in Ghana, India, and Nepal and it developed a protocol in which respondents’ physical activity data (accelerometry data) can be integrated with time use and food intake data. The data and methodology developed through this research provide insights into (1) the energy expenditure and time allocation dimension of agricultural practices and innovations and (2) the gender-differentiated intra-household labour and time allocation associated with these practices and innovations. Such insights are critical for the design of nutritionally-sensitive agricultural interventions.

This data is the collection of perception of people affected by earthquake in Nepal. The data is collected in 14 district of Nepal which has more than sixty percent of damage level by earthquake in 2015. The total of 2100 people are surveyed in various VDC of the district.

It contains survey data collected in Kaski and Chitwan districts of Nepal between 2014 and 2016, related to education and skills, migration, caste relations, and cultural consumption. Survey data entails 837 variables and 1203 respondents. Field research were carried out for a year and half in these villages and in their migration satellites in the Tarai (the Gangetic strip of south Nepal abutting India), in urban centres, and international migrants also were included. Participant observation and interviews were combined with detailed surveys of both households and individuals in order to reveal changing attitudes to education, employment, and migration. The two next-biggest local ethnic groups, the Chhetris and Gurungs, who rank in between Bahuns and Dalits in the traditional caste hierarchy, were also included in the quantitative part of the study in order to bring out contrasts and comparisons. By producing an empirically sound, ethnographically sensitive, and quantitatively sophisticated study of the social history and migration of these two key Nepali groups, one of which is the most significant disadvantaged caste bloc, the research aimed having considerable potential policy impact in Nepal. The timing of research, coming as it did during the ongoing peace process and while disadvantage and exclusion are still very much part of the political debate, was appropriate and indeed advantageous.

Nepal, like India, has traditionally been a caste society, with Bahuns (Brahmans) at the top, Chhetris (Kshatriyas) second, and Dalits (ex-Untouchables) at the bottom. Groups that used to be known as tribes and are now called Janajatis (the groups most commonly recruited to the Gurkha regiments) were slotted into the middle of the hierarchy. Between 1854 and 1951 this caste hierarchy was enforced in an authoritarian way by the state, and until 1963 regulated by law. In India, Dalits have, since 1947, if not before, benefited from positive discrimination in government employment and gradually in education. In Nepal there were till recently no such provisions. Comparing different groups in the country, Nepali Dalits today have the lowest life expectancy, the highest rates of illiteracy, the worst job prospects, the lowest incomes and wealth, and the worst rates of achievement in education. Of all groups of any size they are most disadvantaged and the most discriminated against. Bahuns, by contrast, do extremely well in education, have higher levels of educational attainment, and obtain more elite and professional jobs than any other group. They also provide the bulk of the political elite. Neither Dalits nor Bahuns have been studied as much they should have, given their importance in Nepali society, and this study aims to fill this gap. The political situation in Nepal is in flux. The Constituent Assembly, elected in April 2008 on the most inclusive franchise ever used in Nepal (surpassing even India's measures to ensure representation for marginal groups), failed ignominiously to produce a constitution, even after four years and four extensions of time, in May 2012. The Supreme Court refused to prolong the Assembly, leaving Nepal with a caretaker Prime Minister, no parliament, and an uncertain future. The key issue, over which the constitution-writing faltered, was that of ethnicity. In this context, it was essential to understand from the bottom up, the new process of ethnic identity formation among Bahuns and Dalits - a reaction to the much longer-standing and politically more assertive ethnicity formation among ex-tribal Janajati groups. This project aimed to examine in detail exactly how the patterns of disadvantage and exclusion, on the one hand, and achievement and success, on the other, are produced and reproduced. In doing so it focused on six neighbouring villages in west central Nepal where the two largest population groups are Bahuns and Dalits.

Data collected at the end of fiscal year 2018 to assess program progress in the far-west and mid-west regions of Nepal. The data set was generated by interviewing a sample of the program participants in all 14 working districts. Topics of the survey include nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, alternative livelihoods and governance.

This data set contains data from interviews with 2856 livestock producing households and 357 cooperative officers, distributed through 108 cooperatives. Data were collected in December 2017 - January 2018.

This dataset contains the files produced in the implementation of the “Integrated Monitoring Framework for Climate-Smart Agriculture” in the Nawalparasi Climate Smart Village (Nepal) in November-December 2018. This monitoring framework developed by CCAFS is meant to be deployed annually across the global network of Climate-Smart Villages to gather field-based evidence by tracking the progress on: Adoption of CSA practices and technologies, as well as access to climate information services and their related impacts at household level and farm level This framework proposes standard Descriptive Indicators to track changes in: 5 enabling dimensions that might affect adoption patterns, a set of 5 CORE indicators at Household level to assess perceived effects of CSA practices on Food Security, Productivity, Income and Climate vulnerability and 4 CORE indicators on Gender aspects (Participation in decision making, Participation in implementation, Access/control over Resources and work time). At farm level, 7 CORE indicators are suggested to determine farms CSA performance, as well as synergies and trade-offs among the three pillars. This integrated framework is associated with a cost-effective data collection App (Geofarmer) that allowed capturing information in almost real time. The framework responds to three main research questions: Within each CSV community, who adopts which CSA technologies and practices and what are their motivations, enabling/constraining factors? What are the gender-disaggregated perceived effects of CSA options on farmers’ livelihood (agricultural production, income, food security, food diversity and adaptive capacity) and on key gender dimensions (participation in decision-making, participation in CSA implementation and dis-adoption, control and access over resources and labour)? How does CSA perform at farm level, and what synergies and trade-offs exist (whole farm model analysis)? The survey questionnaire is structured around different thematic modules (Demographic, Livelihoods, Food Security, Climate events, Climate Services, CSA practices, Financial Services) whose questions allow assessing standard CSA metrics and the specific indicators associated with the research questions 1 and 2. Data required for assessing farm level CSA performance are collected through the Farm, the Crop, the animals and the Tree Calculator modules.

Data collected at the end of fiscal year 2018 to assess program progress in the far-west and mid-west regions of Nepal. The data set was generated by interviewing a sample of the program participants in all 14 working districts. Topics of the survey include nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, alternative livelihoods and governance.

Nepal Government Revenue: Tax: Direct: Income: Corporate Income Tax (CI) data was reported at 22,760.500 NPR mn in Apr 2018. This records a decrease from the previous number of 32,468.700 NPR mn for Jan 2018. Nepal Government Revenue: Tax: Direct: Income: Corporate Income Tax (CI) data is updated quarterly, averaging 2,797.530 NPR mn from Oct 1997 (Median) to Apr 2018, with 83 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 36,366.800 NPR mn in Jul 2017 and a record low of 362.000 NPR mn in Oct 1997. Nepal Government Revenue: Tax: Direct: Income: Corporate Income Tax (CI) data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Nepal Rastra Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Nepal – Table NP.F001: Government Revenue.

This data was used to answer the research question, “How does a sales agent’s gender correlate with end-user hygiene and sanitation behaviors as related to purchase, installation, and use?” This research question was in the context of a sanitation marketing project in Nepal for the NGO iDE. The project sold over 63,000 toilets between 2014 and 2018 using sales agents who were both men and women. In 2018 - 2019, iDE was a grantee under the WASHPaLS contract to study whether the gender of the sales agent had any association with different sanitation behaviors and outcomes. This data is a one-time cross-section dataset of clients who purchased from an iDE supported sales agent and was collected in 2018. Though a consent script was read to all participants at the start of the survey, ethical review was not obtained for this cross-sectional study as no personally identifiable information was collected from participants at any time, and the survey questions posed only minimal risk. The sampling frame for the survey data collection was all households that purchased a latrine from iDE-trained sales agents within the four research districts for which we have recorded gender of sales agent. Within our four districts of operation, there were 249 village development committees (VDC) with sales records. The sample was drawn using a multi-stage random sample with stratification based on VDC and gender of the sales agent. First, given that the primary stratum of interest is sales agent gender, we ensured that we had a robust sample size of 300 households for each sales agent gender strata to allow for difference-in-means testing with significance. The 300 households per sales agent gender were then distributed equally among the four districts, resulting in 75 households per gender per district. There is no counterfactual in this dataset.

Abstract

The primary objective of the High-Value Agriculture Project in Hill and Mountain Areas (HVAP) was to reduce rural poverty and improve food security through enhanced value chains for high-value agricultural commodities in the hill and mountainous areas of Nepal. The project employed a unique approach bringing different actors of the value chain together; smallholder producers were linked with input suppliers, traders, technical service providers, and financial institutions. The project also provided business literacy training and helped strengthen production and marketing by forming farmer's cooperatives or groups, collectively called producer organizations (POs), technical support for household dairy production and developing milk-marketing chains.

The project covers seven hill and mountainous districts in Karnali province and identifies seven agricultural commodities as high value commodities in this area: apple, ginger, vegetable seeds, off-season vegetables, turmeric, timur (Sichuan pepper), and goat. The project supported smallholder farmers by strengthening their access to input markets, output markets, and service markets as well as their skills and capacity to produce market-oriented high value agricultural commodities.

For more information, please click on the following link: https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/impact-assessment-high-value-agriculture-project-in-hill-and-mountain-areas.

Geographic coverage

Seven districts from Mid-Western Development Region (Karnali province in the newly adopted system) of Nepal.

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

Smallholder dairy farmers

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

HVAP interventions cover seven districts from Mid-Western Development Region (Karnali province in the newly adopted system). The project works with producer organizations (POs) and a total of pre-existing 456 POs (which consist of groups and cooperatives) in 144 village development committee (VDCs) are covered. HVAP covers a total of 144 VDCs, 456 POs, and 15,965 households. The total sample selected for the impact assessment consists of 3,028 households (1,504 treatment and 1,524 control households) in 235 POs or clusters (117 treatment POs and 118 control POs). The distribution of the sample size is proportional to the number of project beneficiaries in each district.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]

Research instrument

The household survey questionnaire consists of questions related to socio-economic status, agricultural and livestock production, other sources of income, dietary status, and household decision making. The PO survey questionnaire focuses mainly on indicators related to access to services and infrastructures, communal 20 groups, agricultural and livestock production, commodity prices, and economic activities.

Note: some variables may have missing labels. Please, refer to the questionnaire for more details.

1. There is a long-standing relationship between humans and vertebrate scavengers, as scavengers’ contributions take on regulating (e.g. nutrient recycling, disease control), material (e.g. competition, livestock depredation) and non-material (e.g. sky burials, ecotourism) roles in society. A social-ecological approach to studying biodiversity is increasingly needed, since the inclusion of local perceptions and knowledge has proven critical for effective conservation programs and ecosystem management. 2. We examine livestock farmers’ perceptions and knowledge related to vertebrate scavengers in the highly diverse Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape (Nepal), and assess the sociodemographic traits that influence their perceived value of scavengers’ ecosystem services provisioning (ESP), and function via scavenging services (SS). 3. Farmers’ perceptions of functional importance (SS) showed species-specific gradation, unlike ESP, where only avian scavengers were perceived as beneficial. Our results show that the perception of scavenging as a beneficial ecosystem service and its importance as a biological function are decoupled for facultative scavengers, and coupled for obligate scavengers. Relatedly, we identify that affluence-related traits drove positive perceptions of ESP, and local ecological knowledge-based traits were linked to increased knowledge of function via SS. 4. Thus, this increased awareness of functional importance based on close contact with nature does not guarantee positive valuations of scavengers’ contributions, whereas formal education did influence positive perceptions despite reduced awareness of function. Additionally, our findings suggest that existing environmental education measures are targeting the right groups, as these respondents coincide with lower favorability of scavengers’ ecosystem services, but may be unable to overcome existing human-wildlife conflict. 5. For the first time in South Asia, we survey relevant community stakeholder’s attitudes towards an entire scavenging guild and their associated benefits, detriments, and functional importance. Our study illustrates the varied perceptions that exist for different scavenger species, and closely examines a wide-ranging set of sociodemographic traits that show disparate influences on farmers’ knowledge of ecological function and perceived ecosystem service benefits. Crucially, these findings can guide conservation and management priorities by considering the differences in public perception and awareness of scavenging, as well as the interpretation of nature’s contribution to people. Between 2018 and 2019, we conducted 141 interviews with livestock farmers across the Chitwan-Annapurna Landscaoe of Central Nepal. In each of the three study areas, we selected 16-24 villages according to their accessibility, and based on communications with local governmental officials and community leaders. At each village, we approached 1-6 individuals that identified as keeping livestock by a combination method of random and snowball sampling (Cortés-Avizanda et al. 2018, García-Alfonso et al. 2019). All data was collected by hand in the field, and then the corresponding author manually digitized all responses into corresponding entries within Microsoft Excel. Our fieldwork, including survey design and methodology, was conducted with the approval of The City University of New York’s Human Research Protection Program (HRRP) under the category of Human Subject Research (IRB File #2019-0413). In addition, we also received approval for our survey methodology and fieldwork from Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. We sought verbal informed consent before proceeding with the survey, rather than written consent, due to variability in literacy rates, and farmers’ comfort with reading written documents and ability to sign. In accordance with the guidelines of our institution’s HRRP and Institution Review Board, we first read a pre-approved oral consent script aloud to participants that explained the purpose of our study, our local collaborators, and the nature of questions. Participants were assured that their identities would remain anonymous, and no personal identifiers would be recorded from the information collected. Analyses were conducted using R software 3.3.1 (R Core Team 2016) with ‘glm’ from the stats package for “univariate” (with fixed factor) models, and ‘glmulti’ from the glmulti package (version 1.0.7.1) for multivariate model selection (Calcagno and de Mazancourt 2010). Missing values (e.g., farmer was not asked about species as it was not included in the survey for a given survey area, farmer did not respond to the specific question) are designated as "NA". All analyses omitted NAs, unless otherwise specified in the manuscript.