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Information Potential of the Sample Household Survey for the Study of Child Poverty and Disparities in Ukraine

Inna Osipova, Director of the Department of Household Surveys

State Statistics Committee of Ukraine

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Recent trends in poverty analysis:

• Use of non-monetary criteria (subjective judgements, quality of living conditions, etc.) for poverty assessment along with traditional monetary criteria

• Definition of households with the highest risk of poverty on the basis of multidimensional analysis and comprehensive assessment made with the use of multiple criteria (e.g. poor both by income and by living conditions)

• Use of questions linked to the deprivation sphere – lack of access to certain goods and services required to satisfy basic needs for separate groups of households

• Increased attention to the analysis of issues of the quality of life, social risks and social exclusion

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Information basis for the assessment of poverty in Ukraine: Sample

Survey of Household Living Conditions

• 12,977 households are selected annually for the survey. Response rate is 78.5 per cent.

• Sampling – on the basis of the stratified multi-level selection. The term of validity of the area sample is 5 years and of household sample – 1 year.

• The extrapolation (generalisation) of the sample survey results for all households of Ukraine is made by means of statistical weighting

• 966 interviewers are involved in the survey (the staff of the state statistics agencies)

• The proportion of households with children in the 2006 sample was 34.1 per cent (3,580 households), among them 21.4 per cent (765 households) - single-parent families and 5.6 per cent (199 households) – families with many children.

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Data collection schedule

• Principal interview is held in November of the year preceding the year when the survey is held (household composition, housing, availability of auxiliary farming capacities, education and employment of household members)

• 4 quarterly interviews: held in the first month after the reporting quarter (incomes, large scale and irregular expenses made by the household during the quarter)

• 8 weekly diaries during the year (2 per quarter) filled by the households according to the special schedule (daily expenses and consumption)

• Thematic surveys during the quarterly interviews

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Thematic interviews (modules)

Health (personal assessment, access to medication and healthcare services, reasons for the lack of access, smoking etc.)

Availability of durable goods (quantity, characteristics) Self-assessment of the household income Estimation by the households of sufficiency of their incomes for

satisfying their basic needs: ensuring quality nutrition economic opportunities for supplying children’s diet with fruits, juices,

sweets, for providing meals at school and paying for pre-school activities (kindergarten)

subjective self-identification (wealthy, middle class, lower than middle class, poor)

Subjective poverty line Access to internet by the households (access, frequency, purposes) Availability of certain goods and services for households (new module)

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Types of households with children

By the number of children By children’s age By the number of adults Single-parent families (by the number of adults, by

the lack of father or mother) Young families

Microfiles of the survey allow to process data within the context of other types of households with children

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New module on deprivations among households and

factors that are most often perceived by the population as signs of poverty

Blocks of economic deprivation – income to low to afford necessary inexpensive goods and services

to consume dishes with meat, chicken or fish (once a week or daily), to consume fresh fruit

to buy a new coat and winter footwear for adults (once every 3 years; once every 5 years), to buy necessary clothes and footwear for children, to buy personal hygiene items and household chemicals, inexpensive furniture, absence of a TV set, refrigerator, washing machine

to have normal housing conditions (separate accommodation or separate room, lack of water supply and absence of means for establishing it as well as other improvements, inability to maintain warm temperature in the accommodation during the heating season, for timely and full payment for the utilities, lack of money for the timely routine repair works, availability of accommodation of not less than 5 sq. meters, of not less than 7.5 sq. meters per person)

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Continued

to purchase medical goods and services (medication prescribed by doctors, emergency medical services, paid medical and dental services, inexpensive services of dental prosthetics and in-patient treatment if these services are difficult to get for free)

to receive some professional education, inability to receive at least incomplete secondary education by a child, inability to ensure further education for a child and prevent child employment after the graduation from incomplete secondary education

inability to spend vacations out of home and not with the relatives for at least once a week every year, visit friends or relatives with presents or invite guests, buy tickets to the cinema, theatre or concert once or twice a year, pay for inexpensive personal services, inability to get help from social workers or social services, lack of at least small plot of land (up to 10 hundred square meters)

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Continued

Block on infrastructure development as a sign of geographic accessibility of services and obstacles of non-geographic nature that define access deprivation

Lack of retail trade facilities, communal services, cultural facilities, post and telegraph offices, medical facilities, emergency medical services, kindergarten situated close to the place of residence

Lack of regular daily transport connection with another town/city with more advanced infrastructure

Lack of opportunity to get connected to the landline phone connection

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Peculiarities of deprivation studies

Compiling a list of deprivations Selection of factors with special procedures consensus control: those identified by more than 90 per cent of

respondents are included frequency control: selection of factors for goods and services

that are actually available in the majority of households correlation control: verification of factors for the linkage with

poverty by monetary criteria

Developing the criterion of the concentration of deprivations

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Factors that are most frequently perceived by the households with children as

poverty signs (economic deprivation)lack of money for saving for necessary goods

63.2%lack of money for buying new winter coat and footwear for adults once every 3 years

62.1%lack of money for paying for necessary inexpensive communal utilities 60.5%lack of money for family recreation out of home, not with relatives in their accommodation, at least for one week a year 60.5%lack of money for visiting friends or relatives with presents or inviting guests 59.6%

accommodation not exceeding 7.5 sq. meters per person 59.6%lack of money for urgent repair works

57.7%lack of money for timely and full payment for communal services 57.5%lack of separate accommodation 56.3%lack of money for receiving any professional education 55.8%

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Factors that are most frequently perceived by households with children as signs of poverty

(infrastructure development deprivation)

Lack of access in the community to the emergency medical services 98.2%

Lack of medical facility situated close to the place of residence 96.3%

Lack of pre-school facilities situated close to the place of residence 95.6%

Lack of regular daily transport connection with another community having more advanced infrastructure 95.5%

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Problematic issues

Need for development of the information base for the assessment of effectiveness of social programmes aimed at supporting families with children

The programme of the module on accessibility of goods and services was developed to address the issues of relevance for the general population. The study of poverty among families with children requires the development of a special questionnaire customised to the needs of this group of households.

Need for expansion of the analysis of disparities (causes of child labour, development and geographical accessibility of the infrastructure for households with children, social activities and social exclusion)

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Thank you!