In a context of extended households where individuals are very mobile between households, who lives together at a moment in time is everything but exogenous. Understanding the determinants of household composition was the paramount objective of this project.
Achieving this objective requires in particular two elements:
The direct observation of the dynamics of the composition of households in order to understand the causes and consequences of changes in household structure that occur over time,
The nature of intra-household resource allocation.
To address this question, in cooperation with the National Statistical Office of Senegal (ANSD), we conducted a longitudinal survey. In 2006 a nationally representative survey covering 1,800 households spread over 150 clusters drawn randomly from the census districts so as to insure a nationally representative sample. In 2011, we tracked the nearly 15000 individuals registered in the first survey. They were found in more than 3000 households, all of whom were entirely surveyed (including people not observed in the first wave).
The survey was designed by Momar B. Sylla and Matar Gueye of the Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie of Sénégal (ANSD), Philippe De Vreyer (University of Paris-Dauphine and IRD-DIAL), Sylvie Lambert (Paris School of Economics, INRAE) and Abla Safir (World Bank).
The data collection was conducted by the ANSD thanks to the funding of the IDRC (International Development Research Center), INRA, CEPREMAP, World Bank, European Union and UNICEF.
Special thanks to Atoumane Fall (ANSD), and to our wonderful team of enumerators.
The survey is described in detail in
Philippe DeVreyer, Sylvie Lambert, Abla Safir et Momar Sylla (2008), « Pauvreté et Structure Familiale : Pourquoi une nouvelle enquête ? », Statéco, n°102