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.

Survey Objectives The 2006 Uzbekistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey has as its primary objectives: - To provide up-to-date information for assessing the situation of children and women in Uzbekistan - To furnish data needed for monitoring progress toward goals established in the Millennium Declaration, the goals of A World Fit For Children (WFFC), and other internationally agreed upon goals, as a basis for future action; - To contribute to the improvement of data and monitoring systems in Uzbekistan and to strengthen technical expertise in the design, implementation, and analysis of such systems.

Survey Content MICS questionnaires are designed in a modular fashion that can be easily customized to the needs of a country. They consist of a household questionnaire, a questionnaire for women aged 15-49 and a questionnaire for children under the age of five (to be administered to the mother or caretaker). Other than a set of core modules, countries can select which modules they want to include in each questionnaire.

Survey Implementation The survey was conducted by the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, with the support and assistance of UNICEF and other partners. Technical assistance and training for the surveys is 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 a nationally representative for households, women, and children of Uzbekistan.

Analysis unit

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

De jure household members (defined as memers 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 de jure 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 sample for the Uzbekistan Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey was designed to provide estimates for a large number of indicators on the situation of children and women at the national level, for urban and rural areas, and for six geo-economical regions of the country, as follows: 1. Western: (Republic of Karakalpakstan & Khorezm oblast) 2. Central: (Bukhara, Navoi & Samarkhand oblasts) 3. Southern: (Kashkadarya & Surkhandarya oblasts) 4. Central-Eastern: (Jjizzakh, Syrdarya & Taskentskaya oblasts) 5. Eastern: (Andizhan, Namangan & Fergana oblasts) 6. Tashkent city

Regions were identified as the main sampling domains and the sample was selected in three stages. At the first stage, 375 primary sampling units were selected with probability proportional to size from a master frame of 14,799 enumeration areas called "mahala" produced by a countrywide population review, conducted by the State Statistical Committee (SSC) in 2002. The list of selected enumeration areas served as the frame for the second stage of selection. Each enumeration area was assigned a measure of size equal to the desired number of "standard segments" it contains by dividing the population size of the enumeration area by 500 and rounding to the nearest whole number. One segment was randomly selected on the basis of a sketch-map prepared for each enumeration area. After a household listing was carried out within the selected segments, a systematic sample of 10,505 households was drawn. All selected enumeration areas were successfully visited.

The distribution of clusters between sampling domains is not proportional to the distribution of population and, consequently neither is the fi nal household distribution. The sample is therefore not a self-weighting household sample. For reporting national level results, sample weights are used.

Following standard MICS data collection rules, if a household was actually more than one household when visited, then a) if the selected household contained two households, both were interviewed, or b) if the selected household contained 3 or more households, then only the household of the person named as the head was interviewd.

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.

The sampling procedures are more fully described in the sampling design document and the sampling appendix of the final report.

Sampling deviation

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

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaires for the Uzbekistan MICS were structured questionnaires based on the MICS3 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. The household questionnaire includes household characteristics, education, child labour, water and sanitation, and salt iodization, with optional modules child disability, maternal mortality and durability of housing.

In addition to a household questionnaire, questionnaires were administered in each household for women age 15-49 and children under age five. For children, the questionnaire was administered to the mother or caretaker of the child.

The women's questionnaire include women's characteristics, child mortality, maternal and newborn health, marriage, contraception, and HIV/AIDS knowledge, with optional modul for sexual behavior.

The children's questionnaire includes children's characteristics, birth registration and early learning, vitamin A, breastfeeding, care of illness, immunization, and anthropometry, with an optional module for child development and county specific immunization module by data from medical institution

The questionnaires were developed in English from the MICS3 Model Questionnaires, and were translated into Russian and Uzbek. After an initial review the questionnaires were translated back into English by an independent translator with no prior knowledge of the survey. The back translation from the Russian and Uzbek version was independently reviewed and compared to the English original. Differences in translation were reviewed and resolved in collaboration with the original translators.

The English and Russian and Uzbek questionnaires were both piloted as part of the survey pretest.

All questionnaires and modules are provided as external resources.

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.

Data were entered on six microcomputers using the CSPro software. In order to ensure quality control, double entry of questionnaires was considered and internal consistency checks were performed. Procedures and standard programs developed under the global MICS3 project and adapted to the Uzbekistan questionnaire were used throughout. An additional set of data quality control tables was developed by the data collection team and was used along the data entry to monitor the quality of incoming data and provide feedback to data collection teams. Data processing began simultaneously with data collection in April 2006 and finished in early June 2006.

All data entry was conducted at the SSC head office 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 controlled by the