Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys

1 Measuring Conflict Exposure in Micro-Level Surveys Tilman Br ck*, Patricia Justino, Philip Verwimp and Andrew Tedesco August 2013. Stockholm, 25 June 2013. Key words: Conflict , violence, war, fragility, individuals, households, groups, survey, questionnaire, methodology JEL codes: C81, D74, F52, O12. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Alexandra Avdeenko for excellent research assistance on work leading up to this sourcebook as well as Raka Banerjee, Kristen Himelein, Gary Milante and Diane Steele for their helpful comments and support. * Corresponding author: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Signalistgatan 9, 169.

2 70 Solna, Sweden, Tel: +46 8 655 97 50, Fax: +46 8 655 97 33, Email: Executive Summary Violent Conflict is a key obstacle to overall economic development and specifically to human development. conflicts vary greatly in their nature hence the impacts of conflicts on people also vary greatly. If socioeconomic research on Conflict has demonstrated one thing, it is that the circumstances of Conflict matter greatly for policies designed to end and overcome the legacies of Conflict . Reconstruction policies in particular must build on local Conflict legacies, taking into consideration how people were affected by war and violence, for example through death, displacement, disability, fear, asset loss or market breakdown.

3 In essence, each person may experience a Conflict differently, leading to different types of Conflict Exposure even within families or villages. Conflict Exposure may vary by gender, political view, socioeconomic status, or mere bad luck. Capturing how people experience and are exposed to such Conflict dynamics is the aim of this sourcebook. Specifically, the objective of this Conflict survey sourcebook is to increase the capacity of researchers and policymakers to identify consistently, comparatively, and across time, the ways in which violent Conflict affects individuals, households and communities along key social and economic dimensions.

4 The sourcebook extensively reviews current practices and datasets used in Micro-Level Surveys of Conflict -affected populations. We review existing Conflict - and violence-related questionnaires, with a special focus on the World Bank's Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS) Surveys . We suggest improvements to questionnaires in order to adapt them to Conflict contexts. In addition, we discuss common methodological challenges faced while working in Conflict -affected areas, such as operationalizing a definition of Conflict , using the appropriate unit of analysis, timing the survey, dealing with common biases, and conducting Surveys in an ethical manner.

5 We develop and discuss a Conflict Exposure module: a generic household survey module that can be readily adapted for future socioeconomic Surveys implemented in Conflict -affected areas. In the discussion of our module, we make special reference to the direct and indirect channels by which Conflict may affect respondents' behavior and welfare. Our module builds on the extensive experience of the research team and others in survey design and implementation in Conflict -affected areas. We provide suggestions to practitioners on designing questions to be sensitive to the timing of events and the intensity of individual experiences of violence.

6 We suggest how answer categories may incorporate Conflict scenarios that link directly to welfare and behavioral outcomes. We provide further solutions for how Surveys can be comprehensive covering demographics, economic welfare, Conflict activities, health and harm, displacement, education, and perceptions of security, life satisfaction and expectations - in a Conflict -sensitive manner. 1. Table of Contents Executive 1. Table of Contents .. 2. 1. Introduction .. 3. 2. Current practice .. 6. Purposely designed 6. Use of existing socioeconomic Surveys .. 12. Guidelines for a Conflict sensitive survey .. 16.

7 3. Methodology for surveying in Conflict -affected areas .. 19. Defining Conflict at the Micro-Level .. 20. The unit of analysis .. 22. Time dimensions .. 23. Biases .. 24. 27. 4. The Conflict Exposure module .. 29. Section A: changes in demographic characteristics .. 29. Section B: economic welfare .. 32. Section C: coping activities during Conflict .. 37. Section D: harm and health .. 40. Section E: 43. Section F: education .. 45. Section G: perceptions of security, life satisfaction and expectations .. 47. 5. Conclusion .. 48. Annex I: The Conflict Exposure 50. Section A: changes in demographic characteristics (Unit of Analysis: Household level).

8 51. Section B: economic welfare (Unit of Analysis: Household level) .. 52. Section C: activities during Conflict (Unit of Analysis: Household level) .. 54. Section D: harm and health (Unit of Analysis: Household level) .. 55. Section E: displacement (Unit of Analysis: Individual level) .. 56. Section F: education (Unit of Analysis: Individual level).. 57. Section G: perceptions of security, life satisfaction and expectations (Unit of Analysis: Individual level) 57. Annex II: Surveys with Conflict -related questions by regions .. 58. Annex III: Purposely designed Surveys .. 61. Annex IV: Academic work using LSMS and DHS in Conflict -affected countries.

9 65. Project team .. 67. 68. 2. 1. Introduction Violent Conflict has significant effects on the welfare, resilience and behaviour of individuals, households and communities. These impacts deserve close study at the Micro-Level , both as a new field of academic inquiry and as an aid to development and poverty reduction policy. Policy practitioners have increasingly realized the importance of understanding, compensating for and overcoming the constraints caused by violent Conflict (ERD 2009; World Bank 2011). To gather better data on the impacts of such Conflict , well- designed Surveys need to acknowledge the prior existence of violent Conflict in formal questionnaires and survey designs.

10 We intend this sourcebook and survey module to serve as a basis for developing how a socioeconomic survey may be deployed in Conflict -affected contexts. To that end, we review current practices, discuss specific methodologies for empirical research in Conflict -affected areas and among Conflict -affected populations, and develop a new Conflict module in detail. The sourcebook is intended for the benefit of researchers with widely ranging goals, including academics studying Conflict in its own right and policy makers investigating the welfare of populations living in Conflict -affected areas. Conflict has such a major impact on people's lives that researchers must account for its effect on their respondents' behaviour, resilience and welfare, regardless of the ultimate goals of the research project.