Nationwide household survey nears completion

Seriously lacking in reliable and up-to-date information about its people's living standards, the Iraqi government is working closely with a Norwegian organisation to collect statistics about the country's 18 provinces. Cooperation between the Oslo-based Institute for Applied International Studies, or Fafo, and Baghdad's Planning Ministry on what has been called the Iraq Multiple Indicator Rapid Assessment (IMIRA) began in January this year. With their US $1.3 million budget, funded largely by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Fafo's staff and Iraqi statisticians are on the verge of completing detailed surveys of 22,000 households evenly spread throughout Iraq. "This is a major survey," Fafo fieldwork coordinator Akram Atallah told IRIN in the northern governorate of Arbil. He added that the technique used in the survey would mean that it would be representative of some 140,000 Iraqis, given that the average size of a family is 6.5 people. Fieldwork began this March, with local and international staff visiting 1,100 households in each of Iraq's provinces. Work is now complete in all but Iraq's two northernmost governorates - Arbil and Dahuk. To ensure they are as representative of Iraqi society as possible, households questioned are selected according to what statisticians call the systematic random sample technique. It is a technique that involves entering the name of every village and urban district in each province into a computer to be selected randomly. Once selected, urban and rural areas are meticulously mapped by fieldworkers. "Essentially, that means going to every house in the given area to ensure that we have the name of the head of household," explained Atallah. Once all names are collected, the random selection process is repeated. The IMIRA survey is two highly detailed questionnaires in one. Aimed at the household as a whole, the first contains questions ranging from the size, age and construction materials of the family's house, through the health, level of education and type of employment of its members, its access to schools, clinics and drinking water, to issues such as security, income and expenditure. The second specifically targets the women of the household. Precise questions about nutrition and maternity care come alongside more intuitive questions - on dress codes or Iraq's gun culture. With this second survey in mind, Fafo had originally intended to employ only female fieldworkers. In some parts of Iraq, particularly the Shi'ite south, that turned out to be impossible. But of the 550 local staff, over 60 percent are women. IMIRA is not the first major survey to be done in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. What distinguishes it from earlier surveys, however, is the way it combines information gathering with a determination to build capacity among Iraqis themselves. Fafo's first step, this January, was to hold a 20-day training course for senior officials of Baghdad's Planning Ministry in Amman, Jordan. The officials were trained in the use of computers for data analysis, and brought up to date with international standards for statistical surveys. Equally, to ensure an equitable distribution of expertise, the 550 local statisticians working as project fieldworkers were selected from throughout the country. "Our intention, and I am optimistic that we will succeed, is to leave Iraq in the hands of statisticians as competent as anywhere else in the world," said Atallah. To bring new staff up to speed, Fafo's international statisticians gave 10-day training courses in each of Iraq's provinces. Even with that, though, many Iraqis have found the Norwegian organisation's insistence on speed and absolute precision hard to swallow. "The former Iraqi regime carried out plenty of surveys, but all too often data gathered dust for months before it found its way to the ministries," said Atallah. "We insist that completed questionnaires are in Baghdad within two days of the fieldworker's visit to a family." He added that even the smallest omissions were not tolerated. "A couple of days ago, I was double-checking an interview sent up from Basra. One of the questions in the health section refers to the upper-arm length of the children in the household. The interviewer had written "11". Eleven what? Millimetres? I sent the form back and asked the interviewer to correct it." That may sound harsh. But, like other non-Iraqi colleagues, Atallah has nothing but praise for his Iraqi counterparts' willingness to work in a worsening security situation. Work briefly had to be suspended in Karbala, and in what experts say seem to be staunchly pro-Saddam cities such as Mosul and Baquba, Fafo's fieldworkers are often accused of being traitors. "Having said that, the Iraqis are like the people of my own country, Palestine," said Atallah. "They are used to working under difficult conditions." The results of the report are expected to be published in November.