World Bank Survey Operations & Opportunities for Collaboration: The LSMS Perspective

World Bank Survey Operations & Opportunities for Collaboration: The LSMS Perspective TALIP KILIC Research Economist Living Standards Measurement Study Development Research Group The World Bank tkilic@worldbank.org www.worldbank.org/lsms CEGA/DIME Measuring Development Workshop Berkeley, CA August 19, 2014

LSMS 101 Established in 1980: The McNamara Anectode More than 100 surveys, plus technical assistance to many more.. Original impetus: Measure poverty but also analyze correlates, study household behavior & interactions w/ policies Multi-topic design: More powerful tool than a series of single purpose surveys Sampling unit: Household (consuming & producing unit) Data disaggregated at individual, enterprise, plot, etc.. level Demand driven; policy needs of each country key to survey design No standard LSMS: Content varies by country & over time w/in a country Design process lengthy but inclusive: Linking data producers, users & stakeholders Historical emphasis on Capacity building, sustainability within national statistical offices Open (public) & well-documented data

LSMS Today Goals twofold: Provide technical & financial assistance to countries in generating & disseminating high-quality, policy-relevant household survey data Remain at the forefront of survey methodology by validating methods for public good & integration into LSMS operations Four areas of focus: Data production Expansions on the LSMS platform: LSMS-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture Continuing technical assistance to LSMS-type integrated household surveys Ad-hoc peer review & advice on other surveys Methodological research Tool development CLSP, ADePT-Agriculture Survey Solutions CAPI Software Platform Training & dissemination

LSMS-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture Household survey program started in 2009 with a grant from the BMGF (www.worldbank.org/lsms-isa) Supports 8 countries in Africa: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda Technical & financial assistance for the design & implementation of multi-topic, panel household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture Implemented by the national statistical offices (NSOs) Representative at the national & regional-levels Tracking households & individuals Geo-referencing of household & plots Individual- & plot-level data (GPS-based plot area measurement) Field-based data entry (CAFE, CAPI) Open access data policy (raw & geospatial data series)

LSMS-ISA: Survey Schedule Country Baseline Follow Up Tanzania TZNPS Uganda UNPS Malawi IHPS Nigeria GHS-Panel Ethiopia ESS Niger ENCVMA 2008/09 2010/11 2012/13 (Aug2014) 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2010 2013 (Aug 2014) 2010/11 2012/13 2011/12 2013/14 (Dec 2014) 2011 2014 2013/14 (Dec 2014) GREEN: DATA PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. BLUE: DATA COLLECTION COMPLETED, EXPECTED RELEASE DATE IN ITALICS. YELLOW: DATA COLLECTION ON-GOING OR PLANNED. Mali 2014 2016 Burkina Faso 2014/15 2015/16

LSMS Methodological Research Broad scope of LSMS methodological research since 2005 Consumption, Survey-to-Survey imputation, Labor, Income, Subjective Welfare, Food Security, Asset Ownership, Focus under the LSMS-ISA: Improving agricultural production & productivity measurement Methodological survey experiments under Minding the (Data) Gap research program Partnerships w/ Global Strategy & CGIAR Livestock Data Innovation in Africa

LSMS Methodological Research (2) Completed/on-going/planned experiments on the measurement of Land area Soil fertility Crop production Agricultural labor Livestock production Cognitive & non-cognitive skills Approach: Test (old & new) methods in tandem with a gold standard Assess relative accuracy & scale-up feasibility Cost effectiveness, skill & training requirements, respondent burden Document results, best practices & protocols for scale-up Integrate validated & cost-effective methods into LSMS operations

Ethiopia: Experiment on Land Area, Soil Fertility & Production Measurement Methods (Gold-Standard in Bold): Land Area Slope Soil Fertility Production* Compass & rope GPS measurement (Garmin) GPS measurement (Tablet) Farmer self-reported area Clinometer Farmer self-reported incline Conventional Soil Analysis Spectral Soil Analysis Farmer self-reported soil quality Crop-cutting (4x4 &2x2 sub-plot) Farmer self-reported harvest Partnerships: Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) Timeline: Fieldwork Completed Mar 2014 Soil Testing & Data Analysis Underway *Crop-cutting limited to maize & wheat plots Sample Dynamics 1018 households interviewed 1799 fields selected for objective measurement and soil testing 3791 soil samples collected 205 fields with crop-cutting

LSMS Selected Methodological Research Carletto, Savastano, & Zezza (2013). "Fact or Artifact: The Impact of Measurement Errors on the Farm Size Productivity Relationship." Journal of Development Economics, 103C, 254-261. Carletto, Gourlay, & Winters (2013). From Guesstimates to GPStimates: Land Area Measurement and Implications for Agricultural Analysis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6550 Kilic, Zezza, Carletto, & Savastano (2013). Missing(ness) in Action: Selectivity Bias in GPS-Based Land Area Measurements. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 6490 Kilic, Yacoubou-Djima, & Carletto. Exploring the Promise of Multiple Imputation to Predict Missing GPS-Based Area Measurements in Household Surveys: Evidence from Malawi. On-going. Sourcebook: Land Area Measurement in Household Surveys: Empirical Evidence & Practical Guidance for Effective Data Collection. On-going.

Thoughts on Opportunities for Collaboration Leveraging existing in-country LSMS survey infrastructure for further methodological validation & feasibility assessment Cost-effective approach, with promising sustainability outlook LSMS staff, institutional partnerships, trained NSO staff already in place Depending on the scope of experimentation, some experiments could be Built into an existing LSMS survey or planned methodological experiment E.g. Land area measurement exercise built into Nigeria GHS-Panel Designed in isolation, still taking advantage of the LSMS infrastructure E.g. Aforementioned experiment in Ethiopia Scaling up tested innovations into upcoming national surveys e.g. Cross-country GPS-based plot area measurement in LSMS-ISA Both possibilities with nontrivial implications for survey budget, staff recruitment, training, field supervision

Thoughts on Opportunities for Collaboration (2) Interested in Testing the validity of subjective scales, self-reporting with direct measurements Formulating guidelines for scaling-up innovations in data collection More specifically: Linkages between household & plot level data & high-resolution imagery Applications to better capture individual energy consumption Implications for equivalence scale definitions Expanding objective measures of individual wellbeing Stress, blood pressure, heart rate, other biomarkers Applications to measure water quality, indoor pollution Collaboration with WHO on the water quality front Potential applications to measure agricultural labor input?