Description: The course will review concepts and definitions of key welfare indicators such as the consumption aggregate, poverty line and headcount rate, inequality, and shared prosperity measures. It will outline the key steps of household survey design and implementation, including sampling, survey instruments, and data quality monitoring. The training will also have a hands-on session using Stata, a statistical software for data management and analysis, to familiarize participants with its functionalities, including data importing, cleaning, and analysis. Through real-world examples, the course will cover how a consumption aggregate is calculated from food and non-food components of household expenditure, and the necessary imputations to capture rent, subsidized goods, and spatial differences in prices. Using these concepts, the course will enable participants to calculate welfare measures at national and sub-national levels. The training will also consist of interactive sessions among participants and trainers for focused country specific discussions on upcoming household surveys, labor force modules, and aspects of multi-dimensional poverty. The overarching goal would be to improve statistical capacity and create a basis for engagement on statistics that the Poverty team can build upon in future.
Target Audience: The training program on poverty measurement is specifically designed for officials and policymakers at the National Statistics Organizations (NSO), Ministries of Planning, Finance, Social and Labor Affairs, and related government think tanks of MENA countries. Countries where statistical capacity needs to be improved, and which are either in the early stages or in the process of implementing a household survey are especially encouraged to participate. This audience is targeted due to their roles in data management, analysis, and policy-making that require a deep understanding of household survey data and welfare measurement.
