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

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• The Concept of the Household From Survey Design
  to Policy Planning
• Ernestina Coast (LSE)
• Tiziana Leone (LSE)
• Sara Randall (UCL)
• Funded by ESRC

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• 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

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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 societys basic unit
  as influence upon members well-being
• Increasing use of indicators based on household
  data (e.g. MDGs, asset indicators)

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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?
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We are not..Redefining the definition of the
household
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Methods

• Document review (1950-present) Sub-Saharan Africa
• Review census reports, enumerators manuals,
  questionnaires gt1960
• Review major household surveys since 1980
• Key informant interviews (International)
• Ground truthing fieldwork (Tanzania case study)
• Cognitive interviews
• Ethnographic interviews
• Modelling differences, to include
• Female headed households
• Household dependency ratios
• Asset indices
• Household size

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Census Data Collection issues in household
definition

• AIM complete enumeration of population along
  with individual level characteristics for
  planning purposes
• Themes in definitions
• Eating together
• Common housekeeping
• Living together
• Answerable to head

"Respondents who live in the same housing unit or
in connected premises and have common cooking
arrangements (eat their food together) Ethiopia
1994
'private household' ..defined as a group of
persons living together and sharing living
expenses. Tanzania 1967/78/88

• 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
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Census Data Collection issues in household
definition

• AIM complete enumeration of population along
  with individual level characteristics for
  planning purposes
• 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

In a polygamous marriage if the wives are living
in separate dwelling unit SIC and cook and eat
separately, treat the wives as separate
'households'. Each wife with her children will
therefore constitute a separate household. The
husband will be listed in the household where he
spent the reference night. If the wives eat
together and live in the same dwelling unit then
treat them as one 'household Kenya 1989, 1999
..in the case of plural wives living in the same
house with their husband, with each wife and
children occupying their own set of rooms the
husband might eat with each wife in turn. In such
a case the man, his wives and their children
should constitute one household. Ghana 1970
in Gomoa localities men and their wives do not
stay together. although a man and his wife share
the same housekeeping arrangements and are
catered for as one unit and may often sleep
together, they may not live together. The
approach adopted in the census was that since the
man and wife do not live together, they do not
constitute one household Ghana 1970
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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
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Do household definitions matter?
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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)
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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
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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
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Do household definitions matter?

• Issues of misrepresentation
• Labour / resources / consumption/ education /
  poverty
• Sub-groups
• Homeless
• Street children
• Mobile production systems (fishers, pastoralists,
  miners, construction)
• Children in boarding schools
• Migrants
• Single person households

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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

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Do household definitions matter?

• Question
• What is a household?
• Answer
• 6 people

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Do household definitions matter?
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 its the
government that says when you buy a CHF card
its for 6 personsCommunity Health Fund, the
payment scheme. How to define a household?
People who eat from the same kitchen. Thats
what I would say. From European embassy
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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

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Interviews with the elite

• Clear distinction between the Operational
  household of the data collectors and the unit of
  analysis of the users
• Data collectors have very clear idea of household
  definition
• Loss of information rather minimal
• Not a major issue for comparative purposes
• Contrasting preferences when it comes to decide
  the focus of the definition (eg social, eating,
  economic)
• Users not aware of definition issues
• The main concern is to have a survey at all
• Need for updated information is the strongest
  drive

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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.
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A simplified example.
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STATISTICAL HOUSEHOLDS 1 X MARRIED COUPLE 1 X
FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC HOUSEHOLD
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An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Steven
Victoria

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An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Steven
Victoria

Mary
Anna
Judy (13)
Joy
Ernest
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An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Steven
Victoria
Maria (13)

Mary
Anna
Judy (13)
Joy
Ernest
1 Male headed household 6 adults and 9
children Dependency ratio 1.5
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An example from 2007 fieldwork in Longido
Sleeping last night (census)
Steven
Victoria
Maria (13) Maasai

Mary
Anna
Judy (13)
Joy
Ernest
3 households 1 male 2 female headed 3 adults
6 children (DR 2) 1 woman2 children (DR2) 1
woman 2 children (DR2)
1 Male headed household 6 adults and 9
children Dependency ratio 1.5
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Emerging themes

• Single person households
• Urban affluent
• Household headship?
• Migrants and mobility
• Low-income rental neighbourhoods
• Occupations
• Mining
• Agribusiness
• Construction

Where is the cooking pot?