Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The Household Survey for Evaluation of Food Security and Resilience of Small Scale Farmers in Pakistan, 2013 data were collected by Oxfam GB as part of the organisation's Global Performance Framework. Under this framework, a small number of completed or mature projects are selected at random each year for an evaluation of their impact, known as an Effectiveness Review. These data were used to evaluate the impact of the project titled 'Enhancing food security and resilience of small farmers in Pakistan'. The project was carried out in three districts of southern Pakistan during 2010 and 2011 by Oxfam and partner organisations. The project’s overall objective was to mitigate the negative effects of food price volatility on vulnerable households, by supporting agricultural production and improving access to safety nets and by building local-level institutional capacity to support positive resilience. Activities included providing direct support to households in the form of agricultural inputs and technical support in crop and dairy production. Seed fairs and grain banks were established at a community level to provide access both to good-quality seeds and (in times of crisis) to grain as a food stock. The project also facilitated the creation of village-level Farmer Organisations and Producer Organisations to provide a platform for producers to work together and improve their productivity while investing in new technology or joint marketing of their produce. Two years after implementation ended, Oxfam conducted a household survey to evaluate the success of the project. A questionnaire was administered in 287 households of project participants and 500 comparison households from villages with characteristics similar to those from where the participants were selected. Quasi-experimental methods were used to evaluate the impact of the project by matching project beneficiaries with non-beneficiaries on a range of characteristics. Anonymisation: Community names and union council names have been removed and replaced with codes in random order. The following variables have been recoded so as to prevent unique cases that may allow identification of the respondents: household size (capped at 15 members), age (binned in 5-year intervals), religion (combined categories), size of land (grouped into intervals and capped), size of house (capped at 4+ rooms) and visible characteristics of house (combined categories of wall material). Main Topics: Food security for small farming households in southern Pakistan. First, a random sample was taken of project villages and comparison villages, without respect to village size. A random sample was then taken from all households in project and comparison villages who met basic observable criteria for participation; sample proportionate to number of households in each village. Face-to-face interview

Dataset (written in Dutch) belonging with the RIVM research report 2025-0054 (https://www.rivm.nl/publicaties/depositie-onderzoek-ijmond-najaar-2024-monstername-en-analyse-van-pak-en-metalen-in)

RIVM has been measuring the amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and metals in coarse dust deposited on the ground in IJmond since 2020. A major source of this dust is Tata Steel. The dust causes a public nuisance in a number of villages in the vicinity of the steel plant. PAH and lead in the dust are undesirable with a view to the health of young children. RIVM conducted measurements for the fourth time in the autumn of 2024 and compared the results.

The latest measurements again confirmed that more PAH and metals were deposited in IJmond than in neighbouring areas without any industry. Wijk aan Zee was particularly affected. The amount of PAH and aluminium, lead and zinc in the dust in most villages was somewhat lower than in 2020. The amount of iron has dropped noticeably since 2020.

The cause of the decreases, and whether they are structural, is unclear. The reason for this is that various factors affect the amount of dust deposited in the area, with the amount of dust emitted by Tata Steel being only one of them. Wind strength and direction also affect the amount of dust deposited. Because the weather (wind and precipitation) differed strongly in the years studied, the exact effect of those factors is unclear.

Based on the measurements conducted in 2024, RIVM cannot say whether the measures taken by Tata Steel, such as the windscreen installed right before the start of this measuring round around part of the industrial estate, have had any effect. The purpose of the measures is largely to prevent coarse dust from the storage site and the plant from spreading over the area.

The study shows that it is useful to continue monitoring to keep an eye on the situation in IJmond in the coming years. RIVM want to use these measurements to gain a better understanding of the factors affecting the deposited amount of coarse dust.

Files:

tsn_deposition-research.xlsx - Dataset in .xlsx format

tsn_deposition-research.csv - Dataset in .csv format

The .xlsx file and .csv files contain the same information but in different formats.