Abstract

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is a household survey programme developed by UNICEF to assist countries in filling data gaps for monitoring human development in general and the situation of children and women in particular. MICS is capable of producing statistically sound, internationally comparable estimates of social indicators. The current round of MICS is focused on providing a monitoring tool for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the World Fit for Children (WFFC), as well as for other major international commitments, such as the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS and the Abuja targets for malaria. The survey has been a joint endeavor of the Government of Mongolia and UNICEF to make an in-depth analysis of Mongolia's child and women health, education, livelihood status and right exercises and to assess the progress of implementation of a National Programme for Child Development and Protection (2002-2010). The data will furnish the preparation process of the national reporting to be presented by the Government of Mongolia at the special session of UN regarding the country's implementation of Declaration of the A World Fit for Children.

Survey Objectives The primary objectives of “Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey: Child Development 2005-2006” are the following: - To update the data for assessing the situation of child and women and their right exercises - To furnish the data needed for monitoring progress towards the goals of Millennium Declaration and the WorldFit for Children as a basis for future action planning - To contribute to the improvement of data and monitoring systems in Mongolia and strengthen the expertise in the design, implementation and analytical of these systems.

Survey plans The Mongolia Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey was conducted by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia with the support of the Government of Mongolia and UNICEF. Technical assistance and training for the surveys was provided through a series of regional workshops, covering questionnaire content, sampling and survey implementation; data processing; data quality and data analysis; report writing and dissemination.

Geographic coverage

The survey is nationally representative and covers the whole of Mongolia.

Analysis unit

• Households (defined as a group of persons who usually live and eat together);

• Household members (defined as members of the household who usually live in the household, which may include people who did not sleep in the household the previous night, but does not include visitors who slept in the household the previous night but do not usually live in the household);

• Women aged 15-49

• Children aged 0-4

Universe

The survey covered all household members (usual residents), all women aged 15-49 years resident in the household, and all children aged 0-4 years (under age 5) resident in the household.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The principal objective of the sample design was to provide current and reliable estimates on a set of indicators covering the four major areas of the World Fit for Children declaration, including promoting healthy lives; providing quality education; protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS. The population covered by the MICS - 3 is defined as the universe of all women aged 15-49 and all children aged under 5. A sample of households was selected and all women aged 15-49 identified as usual residents of these households were interviewed. In addition, the mother or the caretaker of all children aged under 5 who were usual residents of the household were also interviewed about the child.

The MICS - 3 collected data from a nationally representative sample of households, women and children. The primary focus of the MICS - 3 was to provide estimates of key population and health, education, child protection and HIV related indicators for Mongolia as a whole and for urban and rural areas separately. In addition, the sample was designed to provide estimates for each of the 5 regions for key indicators. Mongolia is divided into 5 regions. Each region is subdivided into provinces (aimags) and a capital city, and each province into soums, a capital city into districts, each soum into bags and each districts into khoroos. As bag and khoroo household and population listing is annually updated, these were taken as primary sampling units. Bags and khoroos with a large population were divided into 2-3 primary sampling units in order to keep the similar number of households for sampling units. Bag and khoroos (primary sampling unit) were selected with probability proportional to size and 25 households within each of these selected units were sampled using the systematic method. The primary sampling unit variable is the cluster (HH1).

The survey estimates the indicators on the child and women situation by national level, rural, urban areas and regions. Five regions (Western, Khangai, Central, Eastern and Ulaanbaatar) were the main sampling domains and a two stage sampling design was used. Within each region households were selected with probability proportional to size.

A total of 6325 households in 253 primary sampling units were selected to represent 21 aimags and Ulaanbaatar city. Sample weights were used for estimating the data collected from each of the sampled households. No replacement of households was permitted in case of non-response or non-contactable households. Adjustments were made to the sampling weights to correct for non-response, according to MICS standard procedures.

Sampling deviation

No major deviations from the original sample design were made. All primary sampling units were accessed and successfully interviewed with good response rates.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaires for the MICS were structured questionnaires based on the MICS - 3 Model Questionnaire with some modifications and additions. A household questionnaire was administered in each household, which collected various information on household members including sex, age, relationship, and orphanhood status. The household questionnaire includes household's characteristics, household listing, education, water and sanitation, child labour, child discipline, child disability, and salt iodization.

To reflect the country specific characteristics, module “Salt Iodization” of household questionnaire was enlarged by the question about the vitamin enriched flour and module “child discipline” was added with sub-module child behaviour. These additions were made based on the decisions made by work group members and Steering Committee.

In the meantime, the salt used for household cooking was on site tested to measure the iodine content.

Household questionnaire was administered to an adult household member who can best represent other members, women questionnaire to women themselves and under-five questionnaire to mothers or caretakers of children under 5 years. Child weights and heights were measured during the interviews.

The women's questionnaire includes women's characteristics, women listing, child mortality, maternal and infant health, marriage, contraception, attitudes towards family violence, and HIV/AIDS knowledge.

The children's questionnaire includes children's characteristics, child listing, birth registration and pre-schooling, child development , “A” vitamin supplement, breastfeeding, care of illness, immunization, and anthropometry.

The questionnaires were developed in Mongolian from the MICS3 Model Questionnaires, and were translated into English.

In order to check the clarity and logical sequence of questions and determine the interview duration per household, the pretest of questionnaires was made in September 2005 covering the selected households in Erdene soum of Tuv aimag. Based on the findings of the pretest, wording and logical sequence of the questions were improved.

Cleaning operations

Data were processed in clusters, with each cluster being processed as a complete unit through each stage of data processing. Each cluster goes through the following steps: 1) Questionnaire reception 2) Office editing and coding 3) Data entry 4) Structure and completeness checking 5) Verification entry 6) Comparison of verification data 7) Back up of raw data 8) Secondary editing 9) Edited data back up After all clusters are processed, all data is concatenated together and then the following steps are completed for all data files: 10) Export to SPSS in 4 files (hh - household, hl - household members, wm - women, ch - children under 5) 11) Recoding of variables needed for analysis 12) Adding of sample weights 13) Calculation of wealth quintiles and merging into data 14) Structural checking of SPSS files 15) Data quality tabulations 16) Production of analysis tabulations

Details of each of these steps can be found in the data processing documentation, data editing guidelines, data processing programs in CSPro and SPSS, and tabulation guidelines in the MICS manual http://www.childinfo.org/mics/mics3/manual.php

Data entry was conducted by 8 data entry operators in tow shifts, supervised by 1 data entry supervisors, using a total of 9 computers (8 data entry computers plus one supervisor's computer). All data entry was conducted at the NSO using manual data entry. For data entry, CSPro version 2.6.007 was used with a highly structured data entry program, using system controlled approach that controlled entry of each variable. All range checks and skips were