Behind the scenes

Interview with Anna Conte on the Sudan Household and Health Survey

Anna Conte is an Econometrician who is currently working with the EC-FAO Programme as a survey specialist in Southern Sudan. In this interview she talks to Denise Melvin, EC-FAO Programme Information Officer, about the work she did on the Sudan Household and Health Survey.

DM: Anna, can you tell me a little bit about the Sudan Household and Health Survey?

AC: The Household and Health Survey is a nationwide survey launched by the State of Sudan. It assesses household demographics and the health conditions of women and children. In Southern Sudan, two additional modules, aimed at households and communities, have been added to get a baseline of the food security status of the population of Southern Sudan. The food security module survey is being conducted by the Southern Sudan Centre of Statistics and is financed by the State of Sudan, Unicef and WFP.

DM: What was the most important thing you realised while working on the survey?

AC: While I was in Rumbek, I worked with WFP, the US Census Bureau, UNICEF and the Southern Sudan Center of Statistics to prepare and pilot the questionnaire, train enumerators, etc.. I had the chance to speak with many families and slowly began to understand their way of life. I quickly realised that many of the questions were not relevant in their cultural context and had to make some radical changes!

DM: Can you give me an example of questions that were not relevant?

AC: Well, questions about income were often misunderstood. People thought income meant cash and so relatively rich families, with large herds of cattle, often reported they had no income or were not capable of quantifying it. Many families have lived without cash for years. They exchange cattle for cereal and other necessary goods.

We then decided to change income to livelihood in the questionnaire which made more sense in this context. People could understand the concept of livelihoods once the enumerators explained it.

DM: Did you make other radical changes to the questionnaire?

AC: Yes! The original questionnaire took over 3 hours to complete! By concentrating only on key questions, it now takes between 30-50 minutes.

DM: Can you tell me more about the families you interviewed?

AC: Households in Southern Sudan can be huge - sometimes we had to interview 19 or more people! In addition, family members are often scattered and conduct semi-nomadic lives. In part, this is because many move through cattle camps with their herds. However, it is also a coping strategy which has developed after years of conflict; It is a way of making sure that at least part of the family survives to sustain other members.

DM: Anna, how will the results of the survey be used?

The Center for Statistics in Rumbek will produce, among other things, a descriptive analysis based on the survey’s many qualitative questions. WFP, who financed the Food Security part of the survey, will prepare a baseline report for future monitoring.

DM: What else is going on?

AC: The US Census Bureau has set up a “sample frame” for the survey in Southern Sudan. In many countries, the sample frame is based on the census, whereas in Southern Sudan administrative records are completely lacking. They had to estimate population density and pinpoint village settlements based on vaccination related data that is three to four years old. Remember that the population is semi-nomadic and so it is very hard to estimate the size of “fixed” populations.

The sample includes 1,000 households for each of the Southern Sudan States. Enumeration activities will start around the second week of March 2006 and last about a month.

On my next visit to Sudan, I will help out with preliminary activities such as training enumerators and staff at the Center of Statistics in using econometric and statistical software for data analysis.

DM: Thank you Anna!

Rome, February 2006