Survey of Living Standards 2007 and Extension 2008 (Timor-Leste)

Abstract

In 2007-2008 a multi-topic household survey, the Timor Leste Survey of Living Standards (TLSLS2) was conducted in East Timor with the main objectives of developing a system of poverty monitoring and supporting poverty reduction, and to monitor human development indicators and progress toward the Millennium Development Goals. Information collected in the TLSLS2 questionnaire included: household information, housing, access to facilities, expenditures/consumption, education, health, fertility and maternity history, employment, farming and livestock, transfers, borrowing and saving, other income, social capital, subjective well-being, AIDs and anthropometrics.

The TLSLS2-X extension survey was designed to re-visit one third of the households interviewed under the TLSLS2 2007-08 to explore different facets of household welfare and behavior in the country, while also being able to make use of information collected in the TLSLS2 survey for analytic purposes.

The four new topics investigated in the extension survey are:

- Risk and Vulnerability: This section is designed to help us understand the dimensions and sources of household-level vulnerability to uninsured risks in Timor Leste, and the efficacy and welfare effects of various risk-management strategies (prevention, mitigation, coping) and mechanisms (private as well as public, formal as well as informal) households do (or do not) have access to. The work in Timor Leste is part of a program of analytic work and policy dialogue throughout the EAP region, more information on which can be found on the World Bank website.

- Land Degradation and Poverty: This section of the questionnaire is designed to identify proximate causes of deforestation through land use patterns and links with poverty; understand strengths and failures of common land resource management institutions (property rights, enforcement); understand the impact of the Siam Weed problem on household welfare.

- Justice for Poor: The Justice for the Poor/Access to Justice (J4P/A2J) module of the survey will serve mainly as an initial diagnostic for project development in the country. The topics we would be interested in covering would be Dispute Processing/Resolution; Social Legal Norms and Perceptions of Efficiency in Government (Local, Sub-District, District and National level).

- Access to Financial Services: The financial service work has the following two objectives: (i) to collect data on access to and use financial services (savings and credit), both formal and informal, and (ii) assess the quality of information on access to financial services obtained from head of households vs. from all adults - i.e. is there a bias introduced by not asking all household members, do the characteristics of the head or the household affect this (gender, age, nuclear family, urban, education levels, wealth, etc.).