Living Conditions Survey 2013-2014
Afghanistan, 2013 - 2014
Identification
AFG_2013_LCS_v01_M
Living Conditions Survey 2013-2014
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| Afghanistan | AFG |
Integrated Survey (non-LSMS) [hh/is]
The ALCS is one of the flagships of the Central Statistical Organization, as it is the longest standing and most comprehensive survey in the Afghan statistical system. It is now running for more than 10 years and has provided the Afghan Government, civil society, researchers and the international community with precious data on the living conditions of the Afghan population since its first iteration. During the course of its implementation, the survey as changed in scope and purpose, following the country's transformations, what has prompted CSO to let its name evolve as well. It had started as the National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) following a methodology of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, focusing on food security and poverty prevalence and was then heavily supported by the United Nations World Food Programme. Now, the survey is supported by the Delegation of the European Union to Afghanistan and it has expanded to incorporate a large number of dimensions of life. This year, and for the first time, it has implemented a full module on labour, similar to a Labour Force Survey, including child labour.
Comparability of results
Comparability between ALCS 2013-14 and previous NRVAs was maintained as much as possible by a largely similar questionnaire design and content for reported indicators, training and data collection procedures. A new and more appropriate sampling design was introduced for ALCS 2013-14. Whereas this sampling design differed from earlier rounds, all surveys produced representative results at national and provincial level. Comparability with NRVA 2005 is more limited due to major questionnaire revisions since 2007. In addition, data collection in 2005 was limited to three months, which prevented the seasonal analysis that can be done on the basis of the latest three surveys. Any comparison with 2005 results should, therefore, be treated with caution.
The 2013-14 Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey (ALCS; previously known as NRVA - National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment) provides national and international stakeholders with information that is required for the development of policies and programmes. The survey was conducted by the Central Statistics Organization (CSO) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and provides results that are representative at national and provincial level. It covered 20,786 households and 157,262 persons across the country, and is unique in the sense that it also includes the nomadic Kuchi population of Afghanistan. Another distinguishing feature of the survey was the continuous data collection during a cycle of 12 months, which captured important seasonal variation in a range of indicators. The survey was designed to cover a wide scope of development themes and indicators that were agreed upon in series of consultations with government departments and agencies, donors and international organisations.
Sample survey data [ssd]
- Household
- Individual
- Community
Scope
The 2013-14 Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey covered the following topics:
MALE QUESTIONNAIRE
- Household identification
- Household roster
- Houshing and amenities
- Livestock
- Agriculture
- Household assets
- Household income and expenditure
- Household shocks and coping strategies
- Education
- Labor
- Migration
- Persons who left the household
FEMALE QUESTIONNAIRE
- General living conditions and household decisions
- Food security
- Child Labor
- Gender
- Maternal and child health
MALE SHURA QUESTIONNAIRE
- Community identification
- Access
- Projects
- Community development priorities
Coverage
National coverage, the survey was designed to produce representative estimates for the national and provincial levels, and for the Kuchi population.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Central Statistics Organization (CSO) | Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| ICON-Institute | Technical assistance |
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan | Funded the survey |
| European Commission | Funded the survey |
Sampling
The sampling design of the Afghanistan ALCS 2013-14 was developed to produce results that are statistically reliable for most of the indicators at national and provincial level. In addition, the aim of the sampling design was to have representative estimates by season according to the Shamsi calendar used in Afghanistan, in order to capture seasonal fluctuations in a number of key indicators. The design developed for the 2013-14 survey round was a stratified, two-stage cluster approach. The sample distribution is sufficiently close to the national urban-rural distribution that separate analysis for these populations is justified.
Sample Frame
The pre-census household listing that was conducted by CSO in 2003-05, updated in 2009 was used as the sampling frame. For three provinces, the sampling frame consisted of the Socio-Demographic and Economic Survey (SDES) household listings: Bamyan (data collected in 2010), Ghor and Daykundi (both with data collected in 2012). Prior to the fieldwork, the selected EAs - urban and rural - were visited for a mapping update of the households, on the basis of which the second sampling stage was implemented.
The sampling frame that was used for the Kuchi population was the 2003-04 National Multi-sectoral Assessment of Kuchi (NMAK-2004). Although far from perfect given the rate of settlement of Kuchis in recent years and ongoing discussion about the definition of Kuchi, this is the best frame available for this part of Afghanistan's population.
Sample size
Analysis of previous NRVA rounds showed that a sample size of around 21 thousand households with a cluster size of ten households would produce sufficiently reliable estimates for most variables. Consequently, this sample size was maintained as the standard the 2013-14 ALCS.
For further details on sampling design, see the survey report.
Two major issues impeded the implementation of the sampling design during the fieldwork period.
One was the security situation in parts of the country. For in total 182 clusters (8.7 percent of the original 2,100 clusters) the coverage shifted in time or replacement clusters were selected. In addition, 19 clusters, representing 190 households, were not implemented and not replaced.
A second interference with the sampling design concerned delays in the fieldwork due to administrative, logistic and technical issues. This had the following implications:
- The fieldwork was extended with three weeks in order to capture the full sample.
- Information for winter time was collected in two different years (2013 and 2014)
- The Kuchi sample was implemented in summer and autumn 2014, instead of in winter 2013-14 and summer 2014.
- There was an underrepresentation of coverage during the spring season due to the presidential elections in that period.
Response rate was 99.98 percent. Non-response within clusters was very limited. Only 845 (4.1 percent) of the households in the visited clusters were not available or refused or were unable to participate. In 841 of these cases households were replaced by reserve households listed in the cluster reserve list, leaving 4 households unaccounted for (0.02 percent).
Sample weights are the scaling factors that are required to inflate the sampled households to the number of households that they represent in the survey. The use of stratification in the ALCS 2014 sample design requires that sample weights are separately calculated for each stratum. Due to imperfections in the survey implementation, the design weights are adjusted in order to achieve optimal representation of the survey results. This section separately addresses the calculation of the sampling weights for the resident population and that for the Kuchi population.
For further details on calculation of sampling weights and post-stratification, see the survey report.
Survey instrument
Two type of questionnaires were used to collect the survey data - Household and Male Shura questionnaires.
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 2013-12 | 2014-12 |
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Central Statistics Organization | Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan |
The field staff consisted of two mixed interview couples and one field supervisor for most of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The exceptions were Kabul - where the field staff consisted of two supervisors and four interviewer couples - and Herat, with one supervisor and three interviewer couples. The field operations were supervised by nine Regional Statistical Officers (RSOs), who were selected from the Provincial Statistical Officers (PSOs). In addition, ALCS staff from CSO Headquarters performed monthly monitoring missions for direct feedback to interviewers and supervisors.
The male interviewers administered the interviews with the male household representative and the female interviewers those with female household representative and other eligible female household members. The supervisor usually administered the male Shura interviews and performed the household listing update prior to the data collection.
Each of the field teams had a monthly interview target of on average 50 household interviews in 5 selected clusters, resulting in a national monthly total of 1,700 household interviews. Data collection started in the second half of December 2013 (Jadi 1392). Fieldwork delays were experienced during the months of the presidential elections in April and June 2014 and during Ramazan in July 2014. However, the field staff managed to catch up with the largest part of the interview backlog, and only few interview clusters were completed after mid December 2014. In addition to surveying the resident population during the entire survey period of 12 months, the nomadic Kuchi population was accessed in summer and autumn 2014.
For further details on data collection, see the survey report.
Data processing
Manual Checking and Coding
Data processing in CSO Headquarters was done in parallel to the fieldwork and started upon arrival of the first batch of completed questionnaires in February 2014. The first two data-processing stages consisted of manual checking and coding by a team of eight questionnaire editors and coders.
The tasks of editors include:
- recording and archiving returned questionnaires
- checking the completeness of the questionnaire batches and questionnaire forms
- checking questionnaire answers for completeness, consistency, correctness and readability
- correcting answers or completing missing answers for a limited and prescribed number of questions, including identification fields and some key questions
- adding codes for missing values
- completing an evaluation form on the basis of which the questionnaire batch would be dispatched to the questionnaire coders or returned to the field for renewed data collection.
Data Entry and Data Editing
Data capture was done with a specially designed CSPro programme, which was piloted to ensure a smooth performance in real time. The data-entry system applied first data entry and dependent verification through double entry to avoid high levels of manual data capture errors. In addition, CSPro data-editing programmes were developed to identify errors and either perform automatic imputation or manual screen editing, or refer cases to data editors for further questionnaire verification and manual corrections.
CSO's data-entry section started entering the first round of data in February 2014. Progress was slow in the first weeks due to the operators' unfamiliarity with the complex questionnaires and fine-tuning of the elaborate data-processing programmes. With experience built up, the speed of data processing increased and in later months all data were entered and verified within two weeks from reception of questionnaires from the manual checking and coding section. Data capture and editing operations were completed in March 2015.
Data appraisal
Data Limitations
The specific constraints in the Afghanistan context in terms of security problems, cultural barriers and local survey capacity induced some data limitations. The following observations should be taken into account when interpreting the results:
- In 152 out of 2,100 clusters (7.2 percent), originally sampled clusters could not be covered, in most cases due to security reasons. For 148 of these cases, clusters were replaced. To the extent that the non-visited clusters may have profiles different from visited clusters, the final sample will give a bias in the results. This effect will have been larger at the provincial level for provinces with relatively large numbers of replacement, such as Ghazni, Helmand and Badakhshan.
- Analysis of the population structure by sex and age shows under-enumeration of women and girls, as well as young children in general, especially infants. Coverage of the youngest age group was much better than in previous surveys, but significant numbers are still omitted. Cultural backgrounds related to the seclusion of women and high infant mortality are among likely reasons for these omissions.
- The quality of age reporting in the Afghan population remains extremely poor, as indicated by large age heaping on ages with digits ending on 5 and 0
- Due to alleged security problems, work by female interviewers in Zabul was not allowed by the authorities. Consequently, the information on general living conditions, maternal- and child health, and gender is largely missing for this province. However, the food-security and child-labour modules in the female questionnaire were completed by male interviewers interviewing male respondents.
Depositor information
| Name |
|---|
| Silvia Redaelli |
Data Access
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including country, acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Disclaimer and copyrights
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|
| Central Statistics Organization | Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan | www.nrva.cso.gov.af |
Metadata production
DDI_AFG_2013_LCS_v01_M_WB
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Development Data Group | The World Bank | Documentation of the DDI |
Metadata version
Version 01 (March 2016). Metadata is excerpted from "Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey 2013-2014" Report.