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

2. 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

3. 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
Increasing use of ‘indicators’ based on household data (e.g. MDGs, asset indicators)

4. What are the implications for “household” members?
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?

5. We are not….. Redefining the definition of the household

6. Methods Document review (1950-present) Sub-Saharan Africa
Review census reports, enumerators manuals, questionnaires >1960
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

7. 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
Eating together: always mentioned post 1980 and usually before
Common housekeeping – often
Living together: sometimes – but usually with various caveats – often unclear
Answerable to one head: comes in mainly after 1990s. Heads exist before then – but mainly for recording or relationships. The actual responsibility / control is fairly recent

8. 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
Servants / lodgers: early years – to be included in hh (was de facto)
more recently – when have evoked issue of answering / recognising a household head – ask if they do and if not then separate hh
also more recently – argue that would create heterogeneity within household in terms of household economy and sharing of resources
Absent household head: de facto – so shouldn’t be included BUT then problem about k’s relationships because become unworkable. ALSO undermines definition – because people do not recognise person recorded as head as the head
Polygamy: many have examples of how should be recorded. As de facto – usually man recorded where spent last night
Several manuals / reports state that they have made a simplified definition because of aim of getting everyone once and once only. AND want simplicity of fieldwork
Ethiopia 1984 says specifically ‘in the census a household is comprised of…)
Kenya 1962 It was recognized that this definition, like most definitions of household, ignored some of the difficulties that would arise but it was preferred to a more elaborate set of instructions and exceptions which might merely confuse enumerators.”
..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

9. 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’

10. Do household definitions matter?

11. 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)

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

13. 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

14. 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”.

15. 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

16. 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

17. Do household definitions matter?
Question:
“What is a household?”
Answer:
“6 people”

18. 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 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

19. 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

20. A simplified example….

23. STATISTICAL HOUSEHOLDS 1 X FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD
1 X MARRIED COUPLE
1 X FEMALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD

24. SOCIO-ECONOMIC HOUSEHOLD

25. An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Steven
Victoria =

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

27. An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Steven
Victoria
Maria (13) =
Mary
Anna
Joy
Judy (13)
Ernest
1 Male headed household
6 adults and 9 children
Dependency ratio =1.5

28. An example from 2007 fieldwork in Tanzania
Eating out of same pot
(Consumption unit)
Steven
Victoria
Maria (13) =
Mary
Anna
Joy
Judy (13)
Ernest
1 Male headed household
4 adults and 9 children
Dependency ratio =2.25

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

30. Where is the cooking pot?
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?