Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey, 2004

Objectives and Scope of the Survey

The main objective of the survey is to collect accurate statistical information about living standards of the population and the extent of poverty as an essential instrument for identifying problems and designing effective policies for reducing poverty, and in evaluating the progress of poverty reduction.

Like the four previous survey rounds six main areas of social concern have been surveyed:

-   Household level and the structure of consumption including poverty and nutrition

-   Household production and cash income

-   Education and access to schooling

-   Health and access to medical care

-   Housing and amenities

-   Family and social relations   

Design and Coverage

The CSES 2004 was carried out on a nationwide representative sample of 15,000 households within 900 Primary Sampling Units (PSU) corresponding to 867 villages. It was designed to provide information on social and economic conditions of households for policy studies on poverty, household production, final consumption for the National Accounts, and weights for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It was divided into 15 monthly samples of 1,000 households each in 60 PSUs from November-03 till January-05.

Using data for the 15 months, reliable estimates were produced for 11 individual provinces; Bantey Meanchy, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kandal, Phnom Penh, Pery Veng, Siem Reap, Svay Rieng and Takeo. The other 13 provinces were grouped according to zone:

Tonle Sap provinces:        Kampong Chhnang and Pursat

Coastal provinces:            Kampot, Sihanouk Ville, Kaoh Kong and Krong Keb

Plateau/Mountain:             Kratie, Steung Treng, Rattanakiri, Mondol Kiri, Preah Vihear, Oddor Meanchey, and Krong Pailin 

 The 1998 Population Census, carried out by NIS, was used as sampling frame in the sampling design of the CSES 2004.

The survey covers private households with one or more persons. Nomadic households are included in principal. Excluded are:

-   People living in institutions (such as long term hospitals, prisons, monasteries, military quarters)

-   Diplomatic and UN households in the country

-   Other foreigners in the country

-   Armed forces residing in military bases

Confidentiality of Information

All information collected in CSES 2004 is strictly confidential and will be used for statistical purpose only, in accordance with the 2005 Cambodian Law on Statistics.

Data collection and fieldwork

The fieldwork started in November 2003 and was scheduled to end in December 2004. However, some more basic data was needed for the analyses and the fieldwork was extended to include January 2005.

50 supervisors and 200 enumerators were recruited by NIS and trained for the fieldwork. The training took place in Phnom Penh and lasted three weeks for supervisors and two weeks for enumerators. Before the start of each fieldwork month there were briefing and retraining sessions.

Each fieldwork team included one supervisor and four enumerators. In urban areas one enumerator was responsible for one PSU and for interviewing 10 households, while in rural areas two enumerators were responsible for one PSU and for interviewing 20 households. In all 125 enumerators and supervisors, divided into 25 teams, were carrying out the fieldwork at the same time. Two such team groups were formed and each team group alternated monthly.

The supervisor was the leader of the team and was responsible for the coordination of the interviews, collaboration with local authorities, and checking for errors in the interviewed questionnaires. Enumerators were required to re-interview in case of errors found in the questionnaire. The supervisor then brought the final checked questionnaire to NIS. The supervisor was also responsible for the village questionnaire and the interviews of the village chief or representative.