Surveys

The project considers five pairs of countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)/Uganda, Ethiopia/Somalia, Lebanon/Syria, Myanmar/Thailand, and Pakistan/Afghanistan. Research will be conducted with partners in the primary focus country of each pair of countries (the first mentioned). This research will be attentive to the cross-border dynamics of the protracted displacement economy with the other country in each pair (the second mentioned). A household survey approach comprising of a baseline survey and two follow-up panel surveys is a central part of this project’s research.   

The 15 research locations (three each from the five primary focus countries) are purposively selected, making sure that both cities and camps providing refuge to the displaced are included, that there is data for a sampling frame (i.e. a list of all households to be studied) and that the sites are accessible to the researchers. Locations will be selected to avoid an exclusive focus on displaced people. In camps (which are exclusive to displaced people), part of a local community outside the camp will also be surveyed. The purpose is to collect a survey dataset for intra- and cross-country comparisons. 

Focus groups will inform the design of the initial survey instrument, ensuring that questions are as comprehensible as possible and are relevant to the local context. The survey instrument will comprise a core section that will be used across all five countries, with short country- and location-specific additions to reflect the concerns of local stakeholders. The instrument was designed jointly by UK researchers and international partners in English then translated by international partners into nine other languages. The survey will be conducted using tablets and the open-source Kobo Toolkit software with multi-language capability.  

The questions will cover standard short measures of: gender, age, multidimensional poverty and wellbeing, displacement/mobility history, livelihoods, social care, and other support including non-financial support. In addition to these household level questions, we will also have individual questions for the respondents on attitudes about contacts with neighbours, collective organisation, sources of emotional support, and plans and hopes for the future. Questions shared across all countries will have standard responses which maximises the potential for intra- and cross-country comparison of this data.  

The survey will consider the entire displacement-affected community. The baseline survey will target a maximum of 2000 households selected randomly in each of the 15 locations, giving a maximum target of 25,000 households across all five countries. The selection of individuals from within a household to respond to the questionnaire will be fully random, stratified by sex. One year after the baseline survey a target of 200 will be re-surveyed, and one year later a target of 150 will be surveyed for a third time. This method will provide longitudinal data for at least 1800 households one year later, and at least 1500 two years later, across all countries.