Expert Group on Measuring Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Western Balkans: Summary and Main Recommendations Gero Carletto Development Research Group The World Bank

Objectives of EG Development of a common approach for measuring poverty and social exclusion according to EU and World Bank requirements in Western Balkan countries while also meeting the client countries’ data requirements for evidence-based policy analysis

Members Eurostat World Bank DFID (UK) INE, Spain ISTAT, Italy (in )

Recommendation 1... in the short to medium term, the best solution for Western Balkan countries is to conduct expanded Household Budget Surveys in order to allow construction of a consumption-based measure of welfare as well as collect additional policy-relevant data.

Recommendation 2... from the start, any such household survey system will have to collect detailed information on both consumption and income, either through a single or multiple instruments

Recommendation 3 Income data should be collected following SILC recommendations (the Canberra Group) as much as possible, with full compliance achieved gradually overtime.

Recommendation 4 A full consumption-expenditure module... should be collected via a fully COICOP-compliant consumption- expenditure aggregate based on a 14- day diary

Recommendation 5 A multi-topic framework should be adopted to ensure that the necessary data are collected to answer key policy questions. The extent of the thematic expansion will depend on specific policy questions and local capacity, but a core module should be repeated in each survey.

Recommendation 6 In developing the variables to be included in the core module, “Eurostat questions” should be utilised where possible – Task Force on core social variables, Eurostat 2007 – Description of target variables, 2008 EU-SILC (Annex 2) – Principles and recommendations for population and housing censuses, Economic and Social Affairs Dept of the United Nations

Recommendation 7 Expansion of the set of questions from the core module, or entirely new set of questions, are to be administered on an ad- hoc basis in given years. Both the breath (number of modules) and depth (length of module) will be determined by individual countries...

Recommendation 8 The success of “piggy-backing” additional modules onto an HBS will depend heavily on resolving some data quality control issues... Adequate quality control mechanisms must be put in place to ensure high standards of data produced.

Recommendation 9 Rigorous validation of the different methodologies being currently used for the measurement of some components of total consumption and income is needed.

Recommendation 10 Any development of a module to add to an HBS survey, or other survey, should involve wide consultation with data users in the specific country.