The Concept of the Household: From Survey Design to Policy Planning Ernestina Coast (LSE)

The Concept of the Household: From Survey Design to Policy Planning

Ernestina Coast (LSE)

Sara Randall (UCL)

Tiziana Leone (LSE)

Funded by ESRC

The Issue

Definition of ‘household’ in African censuses & surveys– What is a household?– Much work examines / critiques household (eg: van de

Walle 2006)– Anthropologists very critical of concept

Do household definitions matter?


‘The household is central to the development process. Not only is the household a

production unit but it is also a consumption, social and demographic unit’

Kenya: Ministry of Planning and National Development 2003:59

The Issue

Why does the definition matter?

What are consequences of household definition?

– Data commissioners

– Data collectors

– Data analysts

– Data users

• Policy makers

• Planning / implementing targeted interventions

What are the implications for “household” members?

We are not…..

Redefining the definition of the household

Data designers & collectors have:

clear ideas about why need something called ‘household’

clear aims

clear understanding of household definition

BUT what about analysts / users / consumers far removed from collection?

MIGHT: look at definition and assume this is the unit of production, consumption, socialisation central to the development process

MIGHT: not even look at definition because they assume they know what a household is

shared language

Do household definitions matter?• More variables being added in ‘household section’

• Way of measuring wealth / poverty / access to facilities which influence health

• New level of analysis / explanation

• More use (researchers & policy makers) made of publicly available data

• Recognition of importance of society’s basic unit as influence upon members’ well-being

Methods1. Document review (1950-present) Sub-Saharan Africa

Census reports, enumerators manuals, questionnaires >1960Major household surveys since 1980

2. Key informant in-depth interviews (International)

3. Ground truthing fieldwork (Tanzania case studies)

1. Cognitive interviews

2. Ethnographic interviews

4. Modelling differences, to include:

1. Female headed households

2. Household dependency ratios

3. Asset indices

4. Household size

Census Data Collection: issues in household definitionAIM: complete enumeration of population along with individual level characteristics for planning purposes


Themes in definitions

•Eating together

"Respondents who live in the same housing unit or in

connected premises and have common cooking arrangements (eat their

food together) Ethiopia 1994



•Eating together

•Common housekeeping


connected premises and have common cooking

arrangements (eat their food together) Ethiopia

'private household' ..defined as a

group of persons living together and

sharing living expenses. Tanzania



•Eating together


•Living together



arrangements (eat their food together) Ethiopia 1994

A household consists of a person, or a group of persons, who occupy a

common dwelling (or part of it) for at least four days a week and who

provide themselves jointly with food and other essentials for living. In

other words, they live together as a unit. South Africa

'private household' ..defined as a group of persons living together and




•Eating together


•Living together

•Answerable to head



arrangements (eat their food together) Ethiopia 1994

-a group of persons who normally live and eat together Kenya 1969

- a group of persons who normally live and eat together, whether or not they are related by blood or

marriage Kenya 1979/89

- adds answerable to the same household head Kenya 1999

A household consists of a person, or a group of persons, who occupy a

common dwelling (or part of it) for at least four days a week and who provide themselves jointly with food and other

essentials for living. In other words, they live together as a unit. S.Africa 1996

'private household' ..defined as a group of persons living together and



Household definition practical: facilitating collection of exhaustive enumeration of individuals minimising possibility of double counting

De facto / de jure: All countries de facto. Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana also de jure

Evolution of units over time

Botswana – 1964 household (dwelling place), 1971 household in compound “lolwapa”, 1981+ households

Gambia – 1963 ‘families’ in ‘yards’, 1973 compounds, 1983+ households

Ghana – 1963 house/compound (household for PES), 1970+ households

Kenya – 1962+ households – living together & sharing meals

Malawi – 1966/1977 dwelling unit, 1987+ household

Nigeria – 1952 premises, 1973+ household

Tanzania – 1967+ household

Zambia – 1963+ household (but 1963 rural – ended up being hut) 1969+ household


DIFFICULTIES EVOKED

• Servants – are they part of household or separate?

•Boarders / lodgers

•Absent household head

•Polygamy

•Complicated patterns of male female residence (Ghana)

•Children in boarding school

Census Data Collection: issues in household definition

Summary:

• household definition is practical solution to census aims of total enumeration

• recognition (usually) that is a reduced social unit

• recognition that compromises are made

• set of rules for enumerators to follow

• continuity over time – comparability

Creation of what van de Walle (2006) calls ‘a statistical household’

Tanzanian example: language and the household

“So when we , at NBS (in mid 1970s) when we sent and we discussed this in meetings and we said well, we now have to look for a word in

Kiswahili – there were suggestions - more than one – as usual.

We said, wel,l we have the National Kiswahili Council and we have the Dept of Kiswahili at UDSM. We shall send them the definition of the

household as we know it from the UN. Now we shall ask them to suggest what is it the Kiswahili equivalent that would fit that UN

definition, that long thing, and we shall suggest that meetings have suggested that it should probably be this or that but maybe there may

be some others, and they also came up with the kaya. Kaya is the arrangement that best suits that definition of the household from the

UN.”

(Senior retired Tanzanian Statistician/Demographer)

Sample surveys: issues in household definition(eg: WFS, DHS, WHS)

Household definition

practical: to enable the identification of individuals for individual questionnaires

“The household is a device used to get at the individual. The

household is the sampling unit while the individual is the

observational unit.”

World Health Survey 2002

‘main purpose of household questionnaire was to identify

women who were eligible for the individual interview’

Zambia DHS 1992, 1996

Sample surveys: issues in household definition(eg: WFS, DHS)

• much more standardised (still some local variations)

• Little variation between core questionnaires and those used by countries

• Little development over time

• Comparability across time and space

Ghana pilot (WFS) provided some detailed insight into the problems of designing verbatim local language questionnaires:Difficulty of translating the concept ‘household’ in any of the three languages tested (Ewe, Asante-Ti and Dagbani)

Cleland et al 1987, p174

Do household definitions matter?• More variables being added in ‘household section’

• Way of measuring wealth / poverty / access to facilities which influence health

• New level of analysis / explanation

• More use (researchers & policy makers) made of publicly available data

• Recognition of importance of society’s basic unit as influence upon members’ well-being


Issues of misrepresentation

– Labour / resources / consumption / poverty…

• Sub-groups Homeless

Street children

Mobile production systems (fishers, pastoralists, miners, construction)

Migrants

Single person households


Increasing use of ‘indicators’

Many indicators calculated at the household level– MDGs

– Poverty reduction

– Asset indicators

– Access to piped water / latrine

– Access to key resources (production or communication)

– Consumption and expenditure

– Including food


Question:

“What is a household?”

Answer:

“6 people”

I Based on your experience in Tanzania how would you define a household?

R A household? [laughs all round] 6 persons. [more laughter]

I And then what do you base that on?

R Well it’s the government that says when you buy a CHF card it’s for 6 persons…Community Health Fund, the payment

scheme. How to define a household? People who eat from the same kitchen. That’s what I would say.

From European embassy


So what is the issue?Data designers & collectors have:

clear ideas about why need something called ‘household’

clear aims

clear understanding of household definition

BUT what about analysts / users far removed from collection?

MIGHT: look at definition and assume this is the unit of production, consumption, socialisation central to the development process

MIGHT: not even look at definition because they assume they know what a household is

A clue: households in European surveys

Household definition usually ‘up to respondent’

GGS: "R is supposed to mention the members of his/her household without any further explanation. If R doubts about whether to include a certain person among the household members or not, consider the following definition….”.

FFS: "The definition of a "household" is largely up to the respondent. In case there is any discussion about this, a household is a person or a group of persons who usually live(s) and eat(s) together”.

Conceptualising understanding of households

• Economic household (IS & PS)

‘the household is an economic unit where the members are linked by

an economic relationship such as producing

together, sharing the money earned or sharing

the home’

The Social Dimensions of Adjustment Priority

Survey, Grootaert & Marchant (1991,17)


• Economic household• Residential household


• Economic household• Residential household • Consumption household

“the household was defined as “consisting of one or more persons related or

unrelated who make common provision for food

and who regularly take their food from the same pot and/or share the same grain store (nkhokwe) or pool their incomes for the

purpose of purchasing food."

Malawi 1987, 1998

A simplified example….

STATISTICAL HOUSEHOLDS

1 X MARRIED COUPLE

1 X FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD

SOCIO-ECONOMIC HOUSEHOLD

An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania

=Steven Victoria


=Steven Victoria

Ernest Judy (13)Joy

MaryAnna


=Steven Victoria

Ernest Judy (13)Joy

MaryAnna

1 Male headed household

6 adults and 9 children

Dependency ratio =1.5

Maria (13)

An example from 2007 fieldwork in Longido

=Steven Victoria

Ernest Judy (13)Joy

MaryAnna

Maria (13)

Maasai

3 households: 1 male & 2 female headed

An example from 2007 fieldwork in Longido

=Steven Victoria

Ernest Judy (13)Joy

MaryAnna

1 Male headed household

6 adults and 9 children

Dependency ratio =1.5

Maria (13)

Maasai

3 households: 1 male & 2 female headed

3 adults + 6 children (DR= 2)1 woman+2 children (DR=2)

1 woman + 2 children (DR=2)

Sleeping last night (census)

Emerging themes• Single person households

• Urban affluent

• Household headship?

• Gated communities

• Migrants and mobility

• Low-income rental neighbourhoods

• Occupations

• Mining

• Agribusiness

• Construction

Where is the cooking pot?

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The Concept of the Household: From Survey Design to Policy Planning Ernestina Coast (LSE)

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