Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except (i) Leh (Ladakh) and Kargil districts of Jammu & Kashmir (for central sample), (ii) interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of the bus route and (iii) villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year.

Analysis unit

Household, Individual

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Outline of sample design: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 64th round survey. The first stage units (FSU) was the 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. However, for the newly declared towns and out growths (OGs) in census 2001 for which UFS had not yet been done, each individual town/ OG was considered as an FSU. The ultimate stage units (USU) was be households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs i.e. villages/ towns/ blocks requiring hamlet-group (hg)/ sub-block (sb) formation, one intermediate stage was the selection of two hgs/ sbs from each FSU.

Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2001 census villages (Panchayat wards for Kerala) constitute the sampling frame. For the urban sector, the list of latest available Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks and for non-UFS towns list of such towns/ OGs was considered as the sampling frame.

Stratification: Within each district of a State/ UT, generally speaking, two basic strata were formed: i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there were one or more towns with population 10 lakhs or more as per population census 2001 in a district, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district was considered as another basic stratum. For a few districts, particularly in case of Tamil Nadu, if total number of towns in the district for which UFS was not yet done exceeds certain number, all such towns taken together formed another basic stratum. Otherwise, they were merged with the UFS towns for stratification.

Sub-stratification in the Rural sector: If "r" be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed is "r/4?. The villages within a district as per frame were first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to "r/4" were demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and have more or less equal population.

Sub-stratification in the Urban sector: If "u" be the sample size for a urban stratum, "u/4" number of sub-strata were formed. The towns within a district, except those with population 10 lakhs or more and also the non-UFS towns, were first arranged in ascending order of population. Next, UFS blocks of each town were arranged by IV unit no. × block no. in ascending order. From this arranged frame of UFS blocks of all the towns, "u/4? number of sub-strata were formed in such a way that each sub-stratum had more or less equal number of FSUs. For towns with population 10 lakhs or more, the urban blocks were first arranged by IV unit no. × block no. in ascending order. Then "u/4? number of sub-strata were formed in such a way that each sub-stratum had more or less equal number of blocks. All non-UFS towns taken together within the district formed one sub-stratum.

Total sample size (FSUs): 12688 FSUs for central sample and 13624 FSUs for state sample have been allocated at all-India level.

Allocation of total sample to States and UTs: The total number of sample FSUs is allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per census 2001 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators had been kept in view.

Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors: State/ UT level sample was allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per census 2001 with 1.5 weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. should not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 8 FSUs was allocated to each state/ UT separately for rural and urban areas. Further the State level allocation for both rural and urban have been adjusted marginally in a few cases to ensure that each stratum gets a minimum allocation of 4 FSUs.

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More information on the sampling methodology is available in the document " Instructions to Field Staff - Volume-I"

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

This schedule is designed to collect the information on (a) participation in education of persons aged 5-29 years in the education system, (b) private expenditure incurred on education and (c) examining the extent of educational wastage and its causes in terms of dropout and discontinuance. The coverage of the ‘education’ includes:

I. School education including those under Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) commencing from class I to X or XII, as the case may be, irrespective of the recognition status of the educational institution,

II. Higher secondary / Pre-university education leading to certificate/ diploma/degree etc. It also includes enrolment in private unrecognised institutions, which have regular classes and following the syllabus and pattern of the education as in recognised schools or colleges and which sponsor students for public examinations as private or external candidates,

III. General University education, whether full time or part time, leading to certificate/ diploma/ degree etc. The Universities not recognised by University Grant Commission will not be covered,

IV. Correspondence courses conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities for awarding regular degrees or diplomas or certificates,

V. Higher secondary / Pre-university / Under-graduate/ Post-graduate / Professional/ Technical education leading to certificate/diploma/degree etc. conducted by recognised open university/schools,

VI. Technical or Professional courses, leading to degree/diploma/certificates, conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or institutes like, National Institute of Fashion Technology, National School of Drama, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Film and Television Institute of India, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, etc. or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities like All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI) etc.,

VII. Professional courses conducted by Institutes like The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Actuarial Society of India, etc.,

VIII. All types of vocational courses of duration three months or more, conducted by Institutions like Industrial Training Institute (ITI), National Vocational Training Institute, Regional Vocational Training Institutes,etc., authorised by competent authorities

IX. All the courses at primary level and above, whether recognised or not, conducted by recognised educational institutions and which are not covered under abovementioned categories.

The following courses shall be specifically excluded: - Art, music and similar type of courses conducted by individuals in their houses or unrecognised/ unaffiliated institutions, - Classes taken by Private tutors, - Education in nursery/Kindergartens/Preparatory levels except for their enrolment statuses and dropout / discontinuance statuses. - The non-formal system of education being implemented through various programs by government or other agencies except for their enrolment statuses and dropout / discontinuance statuses.

What is new?

This Schedule is broadly similar to that used in 52nd Round (July 1994 – June 1995) with the following new additions or modifications. - The NSS 52nd round covered only general and technical education whereas 64th round will also cover vocational education, - In the technical/professional category specific information on courses like MBA, Chartered Accountancy etc. will be collected, - Survey will cover persons in the age group 5-29 years as compared to 5-24 years in 52nd round, - Rather than collecting information on distance from nearest primary school information will be collected on the distances from nearest school having primary, upper primary and secondary level classes, - Information on Household Consumption Expenditure (Rs.) during last 30 days will be collected with the help of five questions in block 3 relating to household characteristics in place of detailed worksheet canvassed in 52nd round, - The information about the expenditure on education will be collected for at most two courses rather than one course as was done in 52nd round, - The block for collecting the details about the expenditure on dependents studying away from home in 52nd round has been dropped and two questions i.e. number of dependents studying away from home and the amount sent to them have been included in the block 3 on household characteristics, - A new question on “Changed educational institution during last one year?” has been introduced, - To get an idea about repetition, information about the class/grade/year in the current academic session and in the previous academic session will be collected, - For class-X and below, questions on grade completed before dropping / discontinuance and the type of school last

Abstract

Malawi Conditional Cash Transfer Program (CCT) is a randomized cash transfer intervention targeting young women in Zomba region. The program provides incentives to current schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to school. The incentives include average payment of US$10 a month conditional on satisfactory school attendance and direct payment of secondary school fees.

The CCT program started at the beginning of the Malawian school year in January 2008 and continued until November 2009. The impact evaluation study was designed to evaluate the impact of the program on various demographic and health outcomes of its target population, such as nutritional health, sexual behavior, fertility, and subsequent HIV risk.

Baseline data collection was administered from September 2007 to January 2008. The research targeted girls and young women, between the ages of 13 and 22, who were never married. Overall, 3,810 girls and young women were surveyed in the first round. The follow-up survey was carried out from October 2008 to February 2009. The third round was conducted between March and September 2010, after Malawi Conditional Cash Transfer Program was completed. The fourth round started in April 2012 and will continue until September 2012.

Datasets from the baseline round are documented here.

Enumeration Areas (EAs) in the study district of Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. 176 enumeration areas were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata: urban areas, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town.

Baseline schoolgirls in treatment enumeration areas were randomly assigned to receive either conditional or unconditional transfers, or no transfers at all. A multi-topic questionnaire was administered to the heads of households, where the selected sample respondents resided, as well as to girls and young women.

Geographic coverage

Zomba district.

Zomba district in the Southern region was chosen as the site for this study for several reasons. First, it has a large enough population within a small enough geographic area rendering field work logistics easier and keeping transport costs lower. Zomba is a highly populated district, but distances from the district capital (Zomba Town) are relatively small. Second, characteristic of Southern Malawi, Zomba has a high rate of school dropouts and low educational attainment. Third, unlike many other districts, Zomba has the advantage of having a true urban center as well as rural areas. As the study sample was stratified to get representative samples from urban areas (Zomba town), rural areas near Zomba town, and distant rural areas in the district, we can analyze the heterogeneity of the impacts by urban/rural areas. Finally, while Southern Malawi, which includes Zomba, is poorer, has lower levels of education, and higher rates of HIV than Central and Northern Malawi, these differences are relative considering that Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence.

Analysis unit

• Households;
• Girls and young women.

Universe

The survey covers never married girls and young women between the ages of 13 and 22 in Zomba district.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

First, 176 enumeration areas (EA) were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata in the study district of Zomba. Each of these 176 EAs were then randomly assigned treatment or control status. The three strata are urban, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town. Rural areas were defined as being near if they were within a 16-kilometer radius of Zomba Town. Researchers did not sample any EAs in TA Mbiza due to safety concerns (112 EAs).

Enumeration areas (EAs) in Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. The sample of EAs was stratified by distance to the nearest township or trading centre. Of the 550 EAs in Zomba, 50 are in Zomba town and an additional 30 are classified as urban (township or trading center), while the remaining 470 are rural (population areas, or PAs). The stratified random sample of 176 EAs consisted of 29 EAs in Zomba town, eight trading centers in Zomba rural, 111 population areas within 16 kilometers of Zomba town, and 28 EAs more than 16 kilometers from Zomba town.

After selecting sample EAs, all households were listed in the 176 sample EAs using a short two-stage listing procedure. The first form, Form A, asked each household the following question: "Are there any never-married girls in this household who are between the ages of 13 and 22?" This form allowed the field teams to quickly identify households with members fitting into the sampling frame, thus significantly reducing the costs of listing. If the answer received on Form A was a "yes", then Form B was filled to list members of the household to collect data on age, marital status, current schooling status, etc.

From this researchers could categorize the target population into two main groups: those who were out of school at baseline (baseline dropouts) and those who were in school at baseline (baseline schoolgirls). These two groups comprise the basis of our sampling frame. In each EA, enumerators sampled all eligible dropouts and 75%-100% of all eligible school girls, where the percentage depended on the age of the baseline schoolgirl. This sampling procedure led to a total sample size of 3,810 (in the first round, and 3,805 in follow-up rounds) with an average of 5.1 dropouts and 16.7 schoolgirls per EA.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The annual household survey consists of a multi-topic questionnaire administered to the households in which the selected sample respondents reside. The survey consists of two parts: one that is administered to the head of the household and another that is administered to the core respondent - the sampled girl from the target population. The former collects information on the household roster, dwelling characteristics, household assets and durables, shocks and consumption. The core respondent survey provides information about her family background, her education and labor market participation, her health, her dating patterns, sexual behavior, marital expectations, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, her social networks, as well as her own consumption of girl-specific goods (such as soaps, mobile phone airtime, clothing, braids, sodas and alcoholic drinks, etc.).

Abstract

This schedule is designed to collect the information on (a) participation of persons aged 5-29 years in the pursuit of education, (b) private expenditure incurred on the education of household members including those who are resident of Students' hostel at the time of survey, (c) examining the extent of educational wastage and their causes in terms of dropout and discontinuance and (d) IT literacy of persons aged 14 years and above. However, inclusions and exclusions, in a nutshell, are mentioned below.

Inclusions: I.School education commencing from class I to X or XII, as the case may be, irrespective of the recognition status of the educational institution, II.Higher secondary / Pre-university education leading to award of certificate/ diploma/ degree etc. including enrolment in private unrecognised institutions, which are authorised to sponsor students for public examinations as private or external candidates, III.General University education in Universities which are recognised by University Grant Commission(UGC), IV.Correspondence or distance learning courses conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities for awarding regular degrees or diplomas or certificates, V.Technical or Professional courses, conducted by Universities, Deemed Universities or institutes like, National Institute of Fashion Technology, National School of Drama, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Film and Television Institute of India, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, etc. or Institutions, authorised by competent authorities like All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI), The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Actuarial Society of India, etc., leading to award of degree/diploma/certificates VI.All types of courses of duration three months or more, conducted by Institutions like Industrial Training Institute (ITI), National Vocational Training Institute, Regional Vocational Training Institutes, etc., authorised by competent authorities VII.Any course at primary level and above conducted by recognised educational institution not covered above.

Exclusions: I.Art, music and similar type of courses conducted by individuals in their houses or by unrecognised/ unaffiliated institutions, II.Classes taken by Private tutors, III.Education in nursery/Kindergartens/Preparatory levels except for their enrolment statuses and dropout / discontinuance statuses . IV.The non-formal system of education being implemented through various programmes by government or other agencies except for their enrolment statuses and discontinuance / dropout statuses.

Summary description of the schedule: In the present round, Schedule 25.2 on education and IT literacy consists of 10 blocks. The first three blocks, viz., Block 0, Block 1 and Block 2 have used for recording identification of sample households and particulars of field operations, as practised in previous rounds. The last two blocks, viz., Block 8 and Block 9 have used to record the remarks/comments of investigator and supervisory officer(s) respectively. Block 3 is used for recording the household characteristics like household size, principal industry and principal occupation of household, household type, religion, social group, distance from nearest school having primary/upper primary/secondary level classes, whether the household has a computer/ any access to internet and household's usual consumer expenditure in a month etc. Block 4 is used for recording the demographic and other particulars of all the household members satisfying the modified definition of household. Particulars of IT literacy for household members aged 14 & above and the particulars of current educational attendance and current enrolment status for household member aged 5-29 years are also collected in Block 4. The education particulars of the household members, aged 5 years to 29 years, who are currently attending educational institutions at primary level and above are recorded in Block 5. In this block, information on course, level, class/grade/year, type of institution, medium of instruction, etc., are collected on basic course. Block 6 is designed to collect particulars of private expenditure on education of the household members, whose educational particulars are collected in block 5. Here, the break-up of expenditure of the basic course of each such member is collected in detail. Particulars of household members, aged 5 years to 29 years, who are currently not attending any educational institution, are collected in Block 7. In this block, information like whether ever enrolled, age at entry in school, age of discontinuation / dropping, etc. have also recorded.

Geographic coverage

National, States, Urban, Rural

Analysis unit

Households Indivisuals

Universe

Households, persons aged 5-29 years in the pursuit of education

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Outline of sample design: A stratified multi-stage design has been adopted for the 71st round survey. The first stage units (FSU) are the census villages (Panchayat wards in case of Kerala) in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units (USU) are households in both the sectors. In case of large FSUs, one intermediate stage of sampling is the selection of two hamlet-groups (hgs)/ sub-blocks (sbs) from each rural/ urban FSU.

Sampling Frame for First Stage Units: For the rural sector, the list of 2011 census villages (henceforth the term 'village' would mean Panchayat wards for Kerala) constitutes the sampling frame. In case of Kerala, due to the non-availability of Panchayat wards based on census 2011, the available list of Panchayat wards based on census 2001 is used as the rural frame. For the urban sector, the latest updated list of UFS blocks (phase 2007-12) is considered as the sampling frame.

Stratification: Stratum has been formed at district level. Within each district of a State/UT, generally speaking, two basic strata have been formed: (i) rural stratum comprising of all rural areas of the district and (ii) urban stratum comprising of all the urban areas of the district. However, within the urban areas of a district, if there are one or more towns with population 1 lakh or more as per Census 2011, each of them formed a separate basic stratum and the remaining urban areas of the district has been considered as another basic stratum.

Special stratum in the rural sector: There are some villages in Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar Islands which reamins difficult to access. As in earlier rounds, a special stratum has been formed at State/UT level comprising these villages in the two State/UTs.

Sub-stratification:

Rural sector: If 'r' be the sample size allocated for a rural stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'r/2'. The villages within a district as per frame have been first arranged in ascending order of population. Then sub-strata 1 to 'r/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum comprised a group of villages of the arranged frame and had more or less equal population. Urban sector: If 'u' be the sample size allocated for an urban stratum, the number of sub-strata formed was 'u/2'. For all strata, if u/2 >1, implying formation of 2 or more sub-strata, all the UFS blocks within the stratum have been first arranged in ascending order of total number of households in the UFS Blocks as per UFS phase 2007-12. Then sub-strata 1 to 'u/2' have been demarcated in such a way that each sub-stratum had more or less equal number of households.

Total sample size (FSUs): 8300 FSUs have been allocated for the central sample at all-India level. For the state sample, there are 9274 FSUs allocated for all-India. State wise allocation of sample FSUs is given in Table 1.

Allocation of total sample to States and UTs: The total number of sample FSUs heve been allocated to the States and UTs in proportion to population as per Census 2011 subject to a minimum sample allocation to each State/ UT. While doing so, the resource availability in terms of number of field investigators has been kept in view.

Allocation of State/ UT level sample to rural and urban sectors: State/UT level sample size has been allocated between two sectors in proportion to population as per Census 2011 with double weightage to urban sector subject to the restriction that urban sample size for bigger states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu etc. do not exceed the rural sample size. A minimum of 16 FSUs (minimum 8 each for rural and urban sector separately) is allocated to each State/ UT.

Allocation to strata: Within each sector of a State/ UT, the respective sample size has been allocated to the different strata in proportion to the population as per Census 2011. Stratum level allocation has been adjusted to multiples of 2 with a minimum sample size of 2.

For special strata in the rural areas of Nagaland and A & N Islands, 4 FSUs has been allocated to each.

Allocation to sub-strata: Allocation for each sub-stratum has been 2 in both rural and urban sectors.

Selection of FSUs:

For the rural sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, required number of sample villages have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the population of the village as per Census 2011. For the urban sector, from each stratum/sub-stratum, FSUs have been selected by Probability Proportional to Size With Replacement (PPSWR), size being the number of households of the UFS Blocks. Both rural and urban samples have been drawn

Abstract

The Tajik Living Standards Survey (TLSS) was conducted jointly by the State Statistical Agency and the Center for Strategic Studies under the Office of the President in collaboration with the sponsors, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank (WB). International technical assistance was provided by a team from the London School of Economics (LSE). The purpose of the survey is to provide quantitative data at the individual, household and community level that will facilitate purposeful policy design on issues of welfare and living standards of the population of the Republic of Tajikistan in 1999.

Geographic coverage

National coverage. The TLSS sample was designed to represent the population of the country as a whole as well as the strata. The sample was stratified by oblast and by urban and rural areas.

The country is divided into 4 oblasts, or regions; Leninabad in the northwest of the country, Khatlon in the southwest, Rayons of Republican Subordination (RRS) in the middle and to the west of the country, and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) in the east. The capital, Dushanbe, in the RRS oblast, is a separately administrated area. Oblasts are divided into rayons (districts). Rayons are further subdivided into Mahallas (committees) in urban areas, and Jamoats (villages) in rural areas.

Analysis unit

• Households
• Individuals
• Communites

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The TLSS sample was designed to represent the population of the country as a whole as well as the strata. The sample was stratified by oblast and by urban and rural areas.

In common with standard LSMS practice a two-stage sample was used. In the first stage 125 primary sample units (PSU) were selected with the probability of selection within strata being proportional to size. At the second stage, 16 households were selected within each PSU, with each household in the area having the same probability of being chosen. [Note: In addition to the main sample, the TLSS also included a secondary sample of 15 extra PSU (containing 400 households) in Dangara and Varzob. Data in the oversampled areas were collected for the sole purpose of providing baseline data for the World Bank Health Project in these areas. The sampling for these additional units was carried out separately after the main sampling procedure in order to allow for their exclusion in nationally representative analysis.] The twostage procedure has the advantage that it provides a self-weighted sample. It also simplified the fieldwork operation as a one-field team could be assigned to cover a number of PSU.

A critical problem in the sample selection with Tajikistan was the absence of an up to date national sample frame from which to select the PSU. As a result lists of the towns, rayons and jamoats (villages) within rayons were prepared manually. Current data on population size according to village and town registers was then supplied to the regional offices of Goskomstat and conveyed to the center. This allowed the construction of a sample frame of enumeration units by sample size from which to draw the PSU.

This procedure worked well in establishing a sample frame for the rural population. However administrative units in some of the larger towns and in the cities of Dushanbe, Khojand and Kurgan-Tubbe were too large and had to be sub-divided into smaller enumeration units. Fortuitously the survey team was able to make use of information available as a result of the mapping exercise carried out earlier in the year as preparation for the 2000 Census in order to subdivide these larger areas into enumeration units of roughly similar size.

The survey team was also able to use the household listings prepared for the Census for the second stage of the sampling in urban areas. In rural areas the selection of households was made using the village registers – a complete listing of all households in the village which is (purported to be) regularly updated by the local administration. When selecting the target households a few extra households (4 in addition to the 16) were also randomly selected and were to be used if replacements were needed. In actuality non-response and refusals from households were very rare and use of replacement households was low. There was never the case that the refusal rate was so high that there were not enough households on the reserve list and this enabled a full sample of 2000 randomly selected households to be interviewed.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire was based on the standard LSMS for the CIS countries, and adapted and abridged for Tajikistan. In particular the health section was extended to allow for more in depth information to be collected and a section on food security was also added. The employment section was reduced and excludes information on searching for employment.

The questionnaires were translated into Tajik, Russian and Uzbek.

The TLSS consists of three parts: a household questionnaire, a community level questionnaire and a price questionnaire.

Household questionnaire: the Household questionnaire is comprised of 10 sections covering both household and individual aspects.

Community/Population point Questionnaire: the Community level or Population Point Questionnaire consists of 8 sections. The community level questionnaire provides information on differences in demographic and economic infrastructure. Open-ended questions in the questionnaire were not coded and hence information on the responses to these qualitative questions is not provided in the data sets.

Summary of Section contents

The brief descriptions below provide a summary of the information found in each section. The descriptions are by no means exhaustive of the information covered by the survey and users of the survey need to refer to each particular section of the questionnaire for a complete picture of the information gathered.

Household information/roster This includes individual level information of all individuals in the household. It establishes who belongs to the household at the time of the interview. Information on gender, age, relation to household head and marital status are included. In the question relating to family status, question 7, “Nekared” means married where nekar is the Islamic (arabic) term for marriage contract. Under Islamic law a man may marry more than once (up-to four wives at any one time). Although during the Soviet period it was illegal to be married to more than one woman this practice did go on. There may be households where the household head is not present but the wife is married or nekared, or in the same household a respondent may answer married and another nekared to the household head.

Dwelling This section includes information covering the type of dwelling, availability of utilities and water supply as well as questions pertaining to dwelling expenses, rents, and the payment of utilities and other household expenses. Information is at the household level.

Education This section includes all individuals aged 7 years and older and looks at educational attainment of individuals and reasons for not continuing education for those who are not currently studying. Questions related to educational expenditures at the household level are also covered. Schooling in Tajikistan is compulsory for grades (classes) 1-9. Primary level education refers to grades 1 - 4 for children aged 7 to 11 years old. General secondary level education refers to grades 5-9, corresponding to the age group 12-16 year olds. Post-compulsory schooling can be divided into three types of school: - Upper secondary education covers the grades 10 and 11. - Vocational and Technical schools can start after grade 9 and last around 4 years. These schools can also start after grade 11 and then last only two years. Technical institutions provide medical and technical (e.g. engineering) education as well as in the field of the arts while vocational schools provide training for employment in specialized occupation. - Tertiary or University education can be entered after completing all 11 grades. - Kindergarten schools offer pre-compulsory education for children aged 3 – 6 years old and information on this type of schooling is not covered in this section.

Health This section examines individual health status and the nature of any illness over the recent months. Additional questions relate to more detailed information on the use of health care services and hospitals, including expenses incurred due to ill health. Section 4B includes a few terms, abbreviations and acronyms that need further clarification. A feldscher is an assistant to a physician. Mediniski dom or FAPs are clinics staffed by physical assistants and/or midwifes and a SUB is a local clinic. CRH is a local hospital while an oblast hospital is a regional hospital based in the oblast administrative centre, and the Repub. Hospital is a national hospital based in the capital, Dushanbe. The latter two are both public hospitals.

Employment This section covers individuals aged 11 years and over. The first part of this section looks at the different activities in which individuals are involved in order to determine if a person is engaged in an income generating activity. Those who are engaged in such activities are required to answer questions in Part B. This part relates to the nature of the work and the organization the individual is attached to as well as questions relating to income, cash income and in-kind payments. There are also a few questions relating to additional income generating activities in addition to the main activity. Part C examines employment

Abstract

The 2014 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) is the seventh DHS undertaken in Bangladesh, following those implemented in 1993-94, 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2004, 2007, and 2011. The main objectives of the 2014 BDHS are to: • Provide information to meet the monitoring and evaluation needs of the health, population, and nutrition sector development program (HPNSDP) • Provide program managers and policy makers involved in the program with the information they need to plan and implement future interventions

The specific objectives of the 2014 BDHS were as follows: • To provide up-to-date data on demographic rates, particularly fertility and infant, and child mortality rates, at the national and divisional level • To measure the level of contraceptive use of currently married women • To provide data on maternal and child health, including antenatal care, assistance at delivery, postnatal care, newborn care, breastfeeding, immunizations, and prevalence and treatment of diarrhea and other diseases among children under age 5 • To assess the nutritional status of children (under age 5) and women by means of anthropometric measurements (weight and height), and to assess infant and child feeding practices • To provide data on knowledge and attitudes of women about sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS • To measure key education indicators, including school attendance ratios • To provide community-level data on accessibility and availability of health and family planning services

Geographic coverage

National coverage The survey was designed to produce representative results for the country as a whole, for the urban and the rural areas separately, and for each of the seven administrative divisions.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual
• Children age 0-5
• Ever married Women age 15-49

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sample Design The sample for the 2014 BDHS is nationally representative and covers the entire population residing in noninstitutional dwelling units in the country. The survey used a sampling frame from the list of enumeration areas (EAs) of the 2011 Population and Housing Census of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The primary sampling unit (PSU) for the survey is an EA created to have an average of about 120 households.

Bangladesh is divided into seven administrative divisions: Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet. Each division is divided into zilas, and each zila into upazilas. Each urban area in an upazila is divided into wards, which are further subdivided into mohallas. A rural area in an upazila is divided into union parishads (UPs) and, within UPs, into mouzas. These divisions allow the country as a whole to be separated into rural and urban areas.

The survey is based on a two-stage stratified sample of households. In the first stage, 600 EAs were selected with probability proportional to the EA size, with 207 EAs in urban areas and 393 in rural areas. A complete household listing operation was then carried out in all of the selected EAs to provide a sampling frame for the second-stage selection of households. In the second stage of sampling, a systematic sample of 30 households on average was selected per EA to provide statistically reliable estimates of key demographic and health variables for the country as a whole, for urban and rural areas separately, and for each of the seven divisions. With this design, the survey selected 18,000 residential households, which were expected to result in completed interviews with about 18,000 ever-married women.

For further details of the sample design, see Appendix A of the final report.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The 2014 BDHS used three types of questionnaires: a Household Questionnaire, a Woman’s Questionnaire, and a Community Questionnaire. The contents of the Household and Woman’s questionnaires were based on the MEASURE DHS Model Questionnaires. These model questionnaires were adapted for use in Bangladesh during a series of meetings with a Technical Working Group (TWG) that consisted of representatives from NIPORT, Mitra and Associates, International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), USAID/Bangladesh, and ICF International. Draft questionnaires were then circulated to other interested groups and were reviewed by the 2014 BDHS Technical Review Committee. The questionnaires were developed in English and then translated into and printed in Bangla.

The Household Questionnaire was used to list all the usual members and visitors in the selected households. Some basic information was collected on the characteristics of each person listed, including age, sex, education, current work status, birth registration, and individual possession of mobile phones. The main purpose of the Household Questionnaire was to identify women who were eligible for the individual interview. Information was collected about the dwelling unit, such as the source of water, type of toilet facilities, materials used to construct the floor, roof, and walls, ownership of various consumer goods, and availability of hand washing facilities. In addition, this questionnaire was used to record the height and weight measurements of ever-married women age 15-49 and children under age 6.

The Woman’s Questionnaire was used to collect information from ever-married women age 15-49.

The Community Questionnaire was administered in each selected cluster during the household listing operation and included questions about the existence of development organizations in the community and the availability and accessibility of health services and other facilities. The Community Questionnaire was administered to a group of four to six key informants who were knowledgeable about socioeconomic conditions and the availability of health and family planning services/facilities in the cluster. Key informants included community leaders, teachers, government officials, social workers, religious leaders, traditional healers, and health care providers among others.

Cleaning operations

The completed 2014 BDHS questionnaires were periodically returned to Dhaka for data processing at Mitra and Associates. The data processing began shortly after fieldwork commenced. Data processing consisted of office editing, coding of open-ended questions, data entry, and editing of inconsistencies found by the computer program. Eight data entry operators and two data entry supervisors processed the data. Data processing commenced on July 24, 2014, and ended on November 20, 2014. The task was carried out using the Census and Survey Processing System (CSPro), a software jointly developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, ICF Macro, and Serpro S.A.

Response rate

Among a total of 17,989 selected households, 17,565 were found occupied. Interviews were successfully completed in 17,300, or 99 percent of households. A total of 18,245 ever-married women age 15-49 were identified in these households and 17,863 were interviewed, for a response rate of 98 percent. Response rates for households and eligible women are similar to those in the 2011 BDHS. The principal reason for nonresponse among women was their absence from home despite repeated visits to the household. The response rates do not vary notably by urban-rural residence.

Sampling error estimates

The estimates from a sample survey are affected by two types of errors: non-sampling errors and sampling errors. Non-sampling errors are the results of mistakes made in implementing data collection and data processing, such as failure to locate and interview the correct household, misunderstanding of the questions on the part of either the interviewer or the respondent, and data entry errors. Although numerous efforts were made during the implementation of the 2014 Bangladesh DHS (BDHS) to minimize this type of error, non-sampling errors are impossible to avoid and difficult to evaluate statistically.

Sampling errors, on the other hand, can be evaluated statistically. The sample of respondents selected in the 2014 BDHS is only one of many samples that could have been selected from the same population, using the same design and expected size. Each of these samples would yield results that differ somewhat from the results of the actual sample selected. Sampling errors are a measure of the variability between all possible samples. Although the degree of variability is not known exactly, it can be estimated from the survey results.

Sampling error is usually measured in terms of the standard error for a particular statistic (mean, percentage, etc.), which is the square root of the variance. The standard error can be used to calculate confidence intervals within which the true value for the population can reasonably be assumed to fall. For example, for any given statistic calculated from a sample survey, the value of that statistic will fall within a range of plus or minus two times the standard error of that statistic in 95 percent of all possible samples of identical size and design.

If the sample of respondents had been selected as a simple random sample, it would have been possible to use straightforward formulas for calculating sampling errors. However, the 2014 BDHS sample is the result of a multi-stage stratified design, and, consequently, it was necessary to use more complex formulae. Sampling errors are computed in either ISSA or SAS, using programs developed by ICF International. These programs use the Taylor linearization method of

Abstract

The Schooling Income and Health Risk (SIHR) project is a randomized evaluation of a conditional and unconditional cash transfer intervention targeting young women in Malawi that provided incentives (in the form of school fees and cash transfers) to current schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to school. The program, known as the Zomba Cash Transfer Program (ZCTP), took place in Zomba, Malawi during 2008 and 2009. The incentives include average payment of US$10 a month conditional on satisfactory school attendance and direct payment of secondary school fees.

The SIHR project was specifically designed to answer a number of important questions about cash transfer programs for which there is little prior evidence. First, almost all information about the impacts of these programs come from Latin America, where income levels are much higher and institutional capacity is vastly superior compared with many poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, the evidence base to effectively choose program design parameters (such as conditionality, transfer size, and the specific identity of the program beneficiary within households) is limited. Third, evidence on final outcomes, such as learning, labor market outcomes, and HIV risk is lacking. Finally, long term evaluations of cash transfer programs are rare - mainly because the control groups in these evaluations are treated after a short period of time.

The baseline data collection was administered from September 2007 to January 2008. The research targeted girls and young women, between the ages of 13 and 22, who were never married. Overall, 3,810 girls and young women were surveyed in the first round. Enumeration Areas (EAs) in the study district of Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. 176 enumeration areas were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata: urban areas, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town. The follow-up survey (Round 2) was carried out from October 2008 to February 2009. The third round was conducted between March and September 2010, after Malawi Conditional Cash Transfer Program was completed. The fourth round took place in 2012-2013. The fifth round is planned for 2017.

The data collection effort includes household surveys, individual quantitative and qualitative interviews, academic assessments, Voluntary Counseling and Testing, school surveys, market surveys, community surveys, and health facility assessments.

The datasets from the third round of the impact evaluation are documented here.

Geographic coverage

Zomba district.

Zomba district in the Southern region was chosen as the site for this study for several reasons. First, it has a large enough population within a small enough geographic area rendering field work logistics easier and keeping transport costs lower. Zomba is a highly populated district, but distances from the district capital (Zomba Town) are relatively small. Second, characteristic of Southern Malawi, Zomba has a high rate of school dropouts and low educational attainment. Third, unlike many other districts, Zomba has the advantage of having a true urban center as well as rural areas. As the study sample was stratified to get representative samples from urban areas (Zomba town), rural areas near Zomba town, and distant rural areas in the district, researchers can analyze the heterogeneity of the impacts by urban/rural areas. Finally, while Southern Malawi, which includes Zomba, is poorer, has lower levels of education, and higher rates of HIV than Central and Northern Malawi, these differences are relative considering that Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence.

Analysis unit

• households;
• 13-22 year-old never-married girls and young women at the baseline.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

First, 176 enumeration areas (EA) were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata in the study district of Zomba. Each of these 176 EAs were then randomly assigned treatment or control status. The three strata are urban, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town. Rural areas were defined as being near if they were within a 16-kilometer radius of Zomba Town. Researchers did not sample any EAs in TA Mbiza due to safety concerns (112 EAs).

Enumeration areas (EAs) in Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. The sample of EAs was stratified by distance to the nearest township or trading centre. Of the 550 EAs in Zomba, 50 are in Zomba town and an additional 30 are classified as urban (township or trading center), while the remaining 470 are rural (population areas, or PAs). The stratified random sample of 176 EAs consisted of 29 EAs in Zomba town, eight trading centers in Zomba rural, 111 population areas within 16 kilometers of Zomba town, and 28 EAs more than 16 kilometers from Zomba town.

After selecting sample EAs, all households were listed in the 176 sample EAs using a short two-stage listing procedure. The first form, Form A, asked each household the following question: “Are there any never-married girls in this household who are between the ages of 13 and 22?” This form allowed the field teams to quickly identify households with members fitting into the sampling frame, thus significantly reducing the costs of listing. If the answer received on Form A was a “yes”, then Form B was filled to list members of the household to collect data on age, marital status, current schooling status, etc.

From this researchers could categorize the target population into two main groups: those who were out of school at baseline (baseline dropouts) and those who were in school at baseline (baseline schoolgirls). These two groups comprise the basis of our sampling frame. In each EA, enumerators sampled all eligible dropouts and approximately two-thirds of all eligible school girls, where the sampling percentage depended on the age and location of the baseline schoolgirl. This sampling procedure led to a total sample size of 3,796 with an average of 5.1 dropouts and 16.7 schoolgirls per EA.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The household survey consists of a multi-topic questionnaire administered to the households in which the selected sample respondents reside.

The survey consists of two parts: one that is administered to the head of the household and another that is administered to a core respondent - a sampled girl from the target population. The former collects information on the household roster, dwelling characteristics, household assets and durables, shocks, deaths and consumption. The core respondent survey provides information about her family background, her education and labor market participation, her health, her dating patterns, sexual behavior, marital expectations, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, her social networks, as well as her own consumption of girl-specific goods (such as soaps, mobile phone airtime, clothing, braids, sodas and alcoholic drinks, etc.).

Much of the information gathered in the third round is similar to the first and second rounds of data collection, but there is a significant portion of distinct and new information pertinent to Round 3.

Abstract

The Schooling Income and Health Risk (SIHR) project is a randomized evaluation of a conditional and unconditional cash transfer intervention targeting young women in Malawi that provided incentives (in the form of school fees and cash transfers) to current schoolgirls and recent dropouts to stay in or return to school. The program, known as the Zomba Cash Transfer Program (ZCTP), took place in Zomba, Malawi during 2008 and 2009. The incentives include average payment of US$10 a month conditional on satisfactory school attendance and direct payment of secondary school fees.

The SIHR project was specifically designed to answer a number of important questions about cash transfer programs for which there is little prior evidence. First, almost all information about the impacts of these programs come from Latin America, where income levels are much higher and institutional capacity is vastly superior compared with many poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, the evidence base to effectively choose program design parameters (such as conditionality, transfer size, and the specific identity of the program beneficiary within households) is limited. Third, evidence on final outcomes, such as learning, labor market outcomes, and HIV risk is lacking. Finally, long term evaluations of cash transfer programs are rare - mainly because the control groups in these evaluations are treated after a short period of time.

The baseline data collection was administered from September 2007 to January 2008. The research targeted girls and young women, between the ages of 13 and 22, who were never married. Overall, 3,810 girls and young women were surveyed in the first round. Enumeration Areas (EAs) in the study district of Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. 176 enumeration areas were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata: urban areas, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town. The follow-up survey (Round 2) was carried out from October 2008 to February 2009. The third round was conducted between March and September 2010, after Malawi Conditional Cash Transfer Program was completed. The fourth round took place in 2012-2013. The fifth round is planned for 2017.

The data collection effort includes household surveys, individual quantitative and qualitative interviews, academic assessments, Voluntary Counseling and Testing, school surveys, market surveys, community surveys, and health facility assessments.

The datasets from the second round of the impact evaluation are documented here.

Geographic coverage

Zomba district.

Zomba district in the Southern region was chosen as the site for this study for several reasons. First, it has a large enough population within a small enough geographic area rendering field work logistics easier and keeping transport costs lower. Zomba is a highly populated district, but distances from the district capital (Zomba Town) are relatively small. Second, characteristic of Southern Malawi, Zomba has a high rate of school dropouts and low educational attainment. Third, unlike many other districts, Zomba has the advantage of having a true urban center as well as rural areas. As the study sample was stratified to get representative samples from urban areas (Zomba town), rural areas near Zomba town, and distant rural areas in the district, researchers can analyze the heterogeneity of the impacts by urban/rural areas. Finally, while Southern Malawi, which includes Zomba, is poorer, has lower levels of education, and higher rates of HIV than Central and Northern Malawi, these differences are relative considering that Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest rates of HIV prevalence.

Analysis unit

• Households;
• 13-22 year-old never-married females at baseline

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

First, 176 enumeration areas (EA) were randomly sampled out of a total of 550 EAs using three strata in the study district of Zomba. Each of these 176 EAs were then randomly assigned treatment or control status. The three strata are urban, rural areas near Zomba Town, and rural areas far from Zomba Town. Rural areas were defined as being near if they were within a 16-kilometer radius of Zomba Town. Researchers did not sample any EAs in TA Mbiza due to safety concerns (112 EAs).

Enumeration areas (EAs) in Zomba were selected from the universe of EAs produced by the National Statistics Office of Malawi from the 1998 Census. The sample of EAs was stratified by distance to the nearest township or trading centre. Of the 550 EAs in Zomba, 50 are in Zomba town and an additional 30 are classified as urban (township or trading center), while the remaining 470 are rural (population areas, or PAs). The stratified random sample of 176 EAs consisted of 29 EAs in Zomba town, eight trading centers in Zomba rural, 111 population areas within 16 kilometers of Zomba town, and 28 EAs more than 16 kilometers from Zomba town.

After selecting sample EAs, all households were listed in the 176 sample EAs using a short two-stage listing procedure. The first form, Form A, asked each household the following question: “Are there any never-married girls in this household who are between the ages of 13 and 22?” This form allowed the field teams to quickly identify households with members fitting into the sampling frame, thus significantly reducing the costs of listing. If the answer received on Form A was a “yes”, then Form B was filled to list members of the household to collect data on age, marital status, current schooling status, etc.

From this researchers could categorize the target population into two main groups: those who were out of school at baseline (baseline dropouts) and those who were in school at baseline (baseline schoolgirls). These two groups comprise the basis of our sampling frame. In each EA, enumerators sampled all eligible dropouts and approximately two-thirds of all eligible school girls, where the sampling percentage depended on the age and location of the baseline schoolgirl. This sampling procedure led to a total sample size of 3,796 with an average of 5.1 dropouts and 16.7 schoolgirls per EA.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The annual household survey consists of a multi-topic questionnaire administered to the households in which the selected sample respondents reside. The survey consists of two parts: one that is administered to the head of the household and another that is administered to a core respondent - a sampled girl from the target population. The former collects information on the household roster, dwelling characteristics, household assets and durables, shocks, deaths and consumption. The core respondent survey provides information about her family background, her education and labor market participation, her health, her dating patterns, sexual behavior, marital expectations, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, her social networks, as well as her own consumption of girl-specific goods (such as soaps, mobile phone airtime, clothing, braids, sodas and alcoholic drinks, etc.).

Response rate

At the first follow-up in Round 2, 94% of baseline schoolgirls and 90% of baseline dropouts were interviewed. There was no differential attrition between treatment groups.