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    Home / Central Data Catalog / GHA-GSS-GLSS 3-1991-V2.1
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Ghana Living Standards Survey 3 -1991
Third round

Ghana, 1991 - 1992
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Reference ID
GHA-GSS-GLSS 3-1991-v2.1
Producer(s)
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS)
Collections
Demography Economics
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Feb 20, 2009
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  • Study Description
  • Data Dictionary
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  • Related Publications
  • Identification
  • Version
  • Scope
  • Coverage
  • Producers and sponsors
  • Sampling
  • Data Collection
  • Questionnaires
  • Data Processing
  • Data Appraisal
  • Access policy
  • Disclaimer and copyrights
  • Metadata production

Identification

Survey ID Number
GHA-GSS-GLSS 3-1991-v2.1
Title
Ghana Living Standards Survey 3 -1991
Subtitle
Third round
Country
Name Country code
Ghana GHA
Study type
Income/Expenditure/Household Survey [hh/ies]
Series Information
GLSS 3 differs from the two previous rounds conducted in 1987/1988 and 1988/1989. This third round concentrates particularly on the income, consumption and expenditure of households at a much more disaggregated level than previously. As a result, GLSS 3 provides much more accurate estimates of income and expenditure, including imputed value of home produced food which is consumed by households. The data on household expenditure was used to derive the weights needed for rebasing the Consumer Price Index until 2002. The GLSS 3 data on income, consumption and expenditure, together with individual, household and community level data collected, was also used as a valuable database for national and regional planning purposes.
Abstract
The Ghana Living Standards Survey (with an Income, Consumption and Expenditure Module) places emphasis on household income, consumption and expenditure and it is specifically concerned with; Understanding the effect of adjustment programmes on different groups of the population and Introducing the concept of social problems and policies targeted towards the least favoured groups.
The survey had the following objectives:

1. To provide information on patterns of households consumption and expenditure at a greater level of disaggregation.
2.To serv e as the basis for the construction of the Consumer Price Index.
3. For up-dating National Accounts.
4. In combination with earlier data from the GLSS to give a database for national and regional planning and for the estimation of consumption as a proportion of
household production.

The key findings of the survey are as follows:

Total expenditure

At March 1992 prices, average annual household expenditure (both cash and imputed) was about 748,000 cedis. Given an average household size of 4.5, this implies annual per capita expenditure of about 167,000 cedis; with the exchange rate of about 400 cedis to the US dollar prevailing at that time, this is equivalent to about 420 US dollars (but more than 800 US dollars if we take purchasing power parities into account). Estimates are given of the level of total expenditure, and of its components, in different localities, ecological zones and regions. Overall, cash expenditure on food represents 40 percent of total household expenditure, while the imputed value of home-produced food consumed by households represents a further 18 percent.

Cash expenditure

Average annual household cash expenditure was 547,000 cedis, giving annual per capita cash expenditure of 122,000 cedis Food (including also alcohol and tobacco) accounted for 54 percent of total cash expenditure; the next most important expenditure groups were clothing and footwear (9%), and housing and utilities (9%). The report provides details of average household and per capita expenditures in urban and rural areas, right down to the item level, as well as showing the proportion of households which report expenditures on each item.

Food consumption

Detailed estimates are given on food consumption. At the time of the survey Ghanaian households (which number about 3.3 million) were spending an annual amount of almost 1,000 billion cedis (at March 1992 prices) on purchases of food; in addition, home-grown food to the value of almost 500 billion cedis was also consumed. The major components of food consumption, in terms of cash value, are: roots and tubers (28%), cereals and cereal products (16%), and fish (14%). In the rural savannah, cereals and cereal products, and pulses and nuts, are a major input to the household diet, while fish is much less important than in other parts of the country.

Employment

Detailed estimates are given of economic activity, employment, unemployment and underemployment. About 76 percent of the adult population (aged 15+) are usually economically active; female activity rates are comparable to those of males. In the rural savannah, almost a fifth of children aged 7-14 are economically active. Basic hourly wage rates and hours of work are shown for different industries. Only 5 percent of the usually active population can be classified as usually unemployed, but there is also a degree of underemployment, with some people having a job but wanting to do more work. In many households, particularly in rural areas, family members spend a great deal of their time fetching water and firewood, in addition to the time spent on other household activities such as cooking and cleaning; a total of about 3 million hours a day are spent on fetching wood, and 6 million hours fetching water, with at least a third of this work being done by children aged 7-14.

Education

Information is given on levels of educational attainment of the adult population, current school enrolment, and educational expenditure by households, and adult literacy rates. Amongst the population of 8 million people aged 15 and over, 3 million have never been to school; in contrast, ½ million have obtained qualifications at the secondary or higher level . About three-quarters of those aged 6-15, and half of those aged 16-18, are currently attending school or college. Attendance rates for females are lower than those for males, especially in the north of the country. The average annual cost to a household of maintaining a person at school or college was 16,000 cedis per year. The overall adult literacy rate (measured by a person's reported ability to write a letter in English or in a Ghanaian language) was 49 percent, with the literacy rate much higher for males (61%) than for females (39%).

Health

The survey collected data on each person's health condition over the previous two weeks, on the fertility, pre-natal care and contraceptive use of women aged 15-49, on the post-natal care of children aged 5 years and under, and on the preventive health care and vaccination of children aged 7 years and under. About 22 percent of the sample reported having suffered from an illness or injury in the previous two weeks, of whom a half had consulted a medical practitioner. The survey found that 8 percent of women were currently pregnant, and a further 14 percent had been pregnant in the last 12 months. Seventeen percent of all women aged 15-49 reported using contraceptives, but the majority of them used traditional methods; only 7 percent used modern methods.

Migration

Some 40 percent of all Ghanaians are migrants, having previously lived in a different locality to where they are living at present; a further 16 percent have moved away from their birthplace, but subsequently returned.

Housing

Detailed information is presented on a variety of housing characteristics: the occupancy status of the household; household size and room density; access to drinking water, toilet facilities, source of lighting and fuel, rubbish disposal, and materials used in house construction. Three-quarters of the households in urban areas have access to pipe-borne water, compared with only 14 percent in rural areas. Two-thirds of urban households have electric lighting, compared with only 8 percent of rural households. Most urban households use charcoal for cooking, whereas most households in rural areas use firewood. Only 18 percent of urban households, and 1 percent of rural households, have access to a flush toilet.

Household agriculture

About 2¼ million households in Ghana own or operate a farm or keep livestock. Detailed estimates are given of the number of households growing different crops and the estimated annual value of their harvest and sales. The major household crops, in terms of sales, are cocoa, maize, tomatoes, cassava, plantain, yam and onions. About a million households process crops or fish for sale, with the major responsibility for this processing falling on women. The main sources of income are gari and processed fish.

Non-farm enterprises

More than 1½ million households in Ghana operate a non-farm business; three-quarters of these businesses are operated by women. Two-thirds of all businesses are engaged in retail trade, and most of the remainder are engaged in some kind of manufacturing (for instance food, beverages, textiles or clothing) . Details are given of the average cost of inputs, assets, revenues and net income, separately for manufacturing and trading enterprises.

Remittances

Remittances to households in Ghana total about 60 billion cedis per year; two-thirds of this amount comes from other households in Ghana, and one-third comes from overseas.

Assets

Detailed information is given on the ownership of various assets. About 40 percent of households own a radio, and 11 percent a television; 15 percent own a bicycle, and 2 percent a car; 27 percent own a sewing machine, and 8 percent a refrigerator.
Kind of Data
Sample survey data [ssd]
Unit of Analysis
Household

Version

Version Description
Version 2.0 Edited, anornymous dataset for public distribution.
Version Date
1995-03

Scope

Notes
The Ghana Living Standards Survey 3 is an extensive survey and detailed in it's coverage of
various topics, it serves as a good basis for in-depth analysis of living standards in the country and lends
itself to the monitoring, evaluation and analysis of poverty in its various ramifications.

The scope of the Ghana Living Standards Survey 3 includes:

1. HOUSEHOLD: Household identification, household roster, education, health, employment and time use, migration,
housing, agriculture, household expenditure, non-farm expenditure, income transfer and miscelleneous, income and
expenditure, credit asset and savings.

2. COMMUNITY:Demographic information, economy and infrastructure, education, health and agricuture.

3. PRICE:Food prices, pharmaceutical items and Non-food prices
Topics
Topic Vocabulary URI
ECONOMICS [1] CESSDA Link
LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT [3] CESSDA Link
EDUCATION [6] CESSDA Link
HEALTH [8] CESSDA Link
HOUSING AND LAND USE PLANNING [10] CESSDA Link
DEMOGRAPHY AND POPULATION [14] CESSDA Link

Coverage

Geographic Coverage
National Regional
Universe
The survey is nationally representative. It has the following sub-universes:

Household roster: all usual household members
Education : usual household members 5 years and older
Health: all usual household members
Employment and time use: usual household members 7 years and older
Migration: usual household members 15 years and older
Housing: heads of households
Agriculture:holders

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators
Name Affiliation
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) Office of the President
Producers
Name Affiliation Role
Ghana Statistical Service Office of the President Data collection, processing, dissemination and archiving the survey
Funding Agency/Sponsor
Name Abbreviation Role
Goverment of Ghana GoG Logistical assistance
The World Bank Support in all aspect of the survey
European Union EU Support in all aspect of the survey
Other Identifications/Acknowledgments
Name Affiliation Role
Mr Peter Digby British Overseas Development Administration (ODA) Statistical Adviser
Mr Harold Coulombe University of Warwick/World Bank Data analysis

Sampling

Sampling Procedure
A multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting the GLSS3 sample. Initially, 4565 households were selected for GLSS3.This spread around the country in 407 enumeration areas (EAs). 15 households were taken in an urban EA and 10 households in a rural EA. The actual achieved sample was 4552 households. The sample designed used for the GLSS3, and with the very high response rate achieved, the sample can be considered as being self-weighting, though in the case of expenditure data weighting of the expenditure values should be done.
Deviations from the Sample Design
There was no deviation from the sampling design.
Response Rate
Out of the selected 4565 households 4552 were successfully interviewed . Details can be found in Appendix 1. of the main report.
Weighting
The design chosen for this survey was intended to ensure that the sample was self-weighting, provided an adequate response was secured on the survey. The number of households achieved in the survey almost exactly matched the number required. The small shortfall arose in cases where an interviewer failed to secure interviews from several of the selected households, and then used up all the reserve list of households in the EA without managing to complete the quota. The number of such cases is so few that it has not been considered necessary to do any imputations or re-weighting for missing households. However there was re-weighting of income and expenditure. The reason for this is given in appendix 1. of main report.

Data Collection

Dates of Data Collection
Start End
1991-09-30 1992-09
Data Collection Mode
Face-to-face [f2f]
Supervision
The quality of the collected data was maintained through a variety of measures: tight supervision, with one supervisor controlling a team of three or four interviewers; observation of interviews, especially through unannounced supervisory visits.
Data Collection Notes
GLSS 3 fieldwork commenced on 30 September 1991 in both rural and urban clusters, and finished in September 1992. In all, 11 teams were involved in the data collection and data entry exercise. Seven of these were rural teams, three were urban, and the eleventh team was a relieving team. The purpose of the eleventh team was to afford each of the ten regular teams the opportunity to take some time off as annual leave.

Rural teams were composed of three interviewers, one data entry operator, a supervisor and a driver. Two of the three interviewers in a rural team were each assigned a workload of 10 households, which they completed over a cycle of 16 days; over the 12-month survey period, each team covered 44 workloads, spread over 22 cycles. Each workload was divided into two batches of five households, with each batch being visited eight times on alternate days throughout the cycle. The third interviewer (called the supplementary interviewer) undertook price reading in markets of the locality and also stood in for the regular interviewers to allow them to take some time off during the week.

Urban teams had a similar composition to rural teams, except that there were four interviewers in the team. Again, one interviewer did the market pricing and acted as reserve interviewer. In urban teams three interviewers were each assigned a workload of 15 households, divided into three batches. One batch was visited on day 1, the second on day 2, and the third on day 3; the first batch of five households was then revisited on day 4, and so on. In urban areas the cycle was 33 days; each batch was therefore visited 11 times during the cycle. With an urban team covering three workloads in one cycle, 33 workloads could be covered in the course of the 12-month survey period, spread over 11 cycles.


In all 67 interviewers, 11 supervisors, 10 data entry operators and 11 drivers were engaged in the data collection and entry exercise. The majority of the field personnel were permanent staff of the GLSS. The experience gained in the two previous rounds of GLSS greatly helped them in coping with some of the difficult situations which arose with GLSS3 in the field.

The schedule of fieldwork was drawn up, taking into consideration distance and accessibility in the grouping of clusters. Each team was assigned to a well defined zone within the country, and was guided by a map (showing the exact location of Enumeration Areas (EAs) to be visited), and a timetable indicating the cycle and date that selected EAs were to be covered. Three teams, the Mid Forest, Upper Forest and East Forest teams, concentrated on rural settlements in the forest zone. The Savannah team covered all rural EAs in the Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions of Ghana, while the Volta Basin team covered areas lying along the east side of the Volta River. The remaining three teams covered only urban EAs. Urban Team 1 was responsible for selected urban EAs in the more northerly regions. Urban Team 2 covered urban EAs in the Western, Central and part of Greater Accra region. Urban Team 3 was assigned to areas from the east of Ghana to part of Greater Accra.

To a large extent the smooth running of the field operations depended on the roadworthiness
of the vehicles. Each team had a vehicle at its disposal, and to ensure that fieldwork was not disrupted a standby vehicle was stationed at headquarters, ready to help out when the need arose.

Even so, on a number of occasions when team vehicles broke down, the field personnel had to use the public transport system until help came from headquarters. Besides vehicle breakdown, other field problems included: respondents abandoning interviews in the middle of a cycle, as a result of a death in the family or a key household member having to travel; personnel problems (eg. resignation or ill-health of interviewers, or resulting from a decision made by superior authorities that an interviewer should be redeployed to another area); logistics (eg. problems with the provision of boots, raincoats or bedding); and diaries which respondents had failed to fill in.
Data Collectors
Name Abbreviation
Ghana Statistical Service GSS

Questionnaires

Questionnaires
Three types of questionnaires were used for GLSS3. These are:
1. Household questionnaire
2. Community questionnaire
3. Price questionnaire

The household questionnaire was in two parts.

Part A questionnaire : used to collect information on household composition,education, health and fertility, employment and time use, migration, and housing characteristics, and it was also used to identify the respondents for Part B.

Part B questionnaire : used to collect information on agricultural activities, including the consumption of home produce, household expenditure, non-farm
enterprises, other income and expenditure, and credit, assets, and savings.

Community questionnaire : used to collect information on details of infrastructure and other facilities available to rural communities . This questionnaire was
usually administered at a meeting with the community chief, along with his elders and other knowledgeable people in the community.

The price questionnaire : was used to collect information on prices in the local market.

All questions were published in english.

Data Processing

Data Editing
The GSS data editing occurs at three levels:

1. Field editing by interviewers and supervisors
2. Office editing
3. Data cleaning and imputation.

GLSS 3 data were entered directly onto microcomputers which had been installed in the eight regional capitals.
Kumasi and Accra had two PCs each, while Tamale, Sunyani, Koforidua, Ho, Cape Coast and Sekondi/Takoradi had one each.

Special interactive software programs had been prepared for data entry and checking, using the software package Rode-PC. Data entry was done in two rounds. In both urban and rural clusters interviewers completed Part A of the questionnaire by the end of the fifth visit to each household; and after checking them, the supervisor took these questionnaires straight away to the regional capital, where the data entry operator began keying in. Once Part B had been completed, the supervisor took these questionnaires to the regional capital, and returned with the Part A questionnaires, plus detailed printouts showing what errors had been discovered by the editing program during the keying in operation. These errors were then corrected in the field.

By the time the data entry operator had finished keying in the second batch of questionnaires (Part B), the team would have moved from those clusters to the next set of clusters. However, the next set of clusters were very close to the previous ones, so going back to correct errors detected in the second round involved travelling only a short distance.

This arrangement made field reconciliation fairly easy . In addition, each set of clusters had been chosen close together so as to make supervision relatively easy. Finally, clusters in areas that were hardly accessible during the rainy season were scheduled to be covered during the dry season. At regular intervals during the fieldwork, diskettes containing the GLSS3 data for each completed cycle were returned to the headquarters in Accra.

Final tabulations were produced using the SAS software package.
Other Processing
Manual data entry was used for the GLSS 3. In all 12 data entry staff were trained and used.

Data Appraisal

Estimates of Sampling Error
All estimates are subject to sampling error. The precision of an estimate for a particular item depends principally on two factors: the number of households reporting expenditure on that item and the variation between households in the amount they spend on the item. An indication of the former is provided in Appendix Table A9.30, which shows the proportion of households in urban and rural areas reporting expenditure on each item in a specified period.

Access policy

Contacts
Name Affiliation Email URL
Government statistician Ghana Statistical Service statservice@gmail.com www.statsghana.gov.gh
Confidentiality
Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) requires all users to keep information and data strictly confidential. In this regard, before being granted access to datasets, all users have to formally agree to observe the following: 1. To make no copies of any files or portions of files to which access has been granted except with the authorization by GSS 2. Not to willfully identify any individual or household or establishment in the dataset 3. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any individual or household or establishment that may be inadvertently revealed in any documents or discussion, or analysis. Such inadvertent identification revealed should be immediately brought to the attention of GSS. 4 Data obtained from GSS are protected by copy right law and therefore not for re-distribution or sale 5. Prospective clients or data users may indicate in affidavit of confidentiality
Access conditions
The Ghana Statistical Service as a public institution has the obligation to promote data dissemination to facilitate national development. Making data available will enable students and the academia to conduct research works, assist investors to take business decision, help the individual to evaluate and take appropriate decisions and assist the government to formulate appropriate policies and programmes. GSS has policy framework by which the individuals, groups of people and companies could access GSS data.

Three levels of accessibility are considered by GSS:
1) Public use files. These categories of data sets are accessible by all without any
payment
2) Licensed datasets. These categories of data sets are accessible under certain conditions.
Thus, prospective clients/data users may access any data based on certain conditions
That GSS will dictate
3) Datasets only accessible on location. Under this, some categories of data sets are
accessible at GSS head office and prospective data users have to physically be
available at GSS head office for further discussions be fore data are released

The following terms and conditions apply:
Before being granted access to the dataset, all users have to formally agree:
1. To make no copies of any files or portions of files to which s/he is granted access except those authorized by GSS.
2. Not to use any technique in an attempt to learn the identity of any person, establishment, or sampling unit not identified on public use data files.
3. To hold in strictest confidence the identification of any establishment or individual that may be inadvertently revealed in any documents or discussion, or analysis.
Such inadvertent identification revealed in her/his analysis will be immediately brought to the attention of the GSS.
4. The data and other materials will not be redistributed or sold to other individuals, institutions, or organizations without the written agreement of GSS.
5. The data will be used for statistical and scientific research purposes only.
6. The data will be used solely for reporting of aggregated information, and not for investigation of specific individuals or organizations.
7. No attempt will be made to re-identify respondents, and no use will be made of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently. Any such
discovery would immediately be reported to the GSS.
8. No attempt will be made to produce links among datasets provided by the GSS with other datasets that could identify individuals or organizations.
9. Any books, articles, conference papers, theses, dissertations, reports, or other publications that employ data obtained from the GSS would cite the source of data in
accordance with the citation statement provided with the dataset
10. An electronic copy of all reports and publications based on the requested data will be sent to the GSS.
Citation requirements
GSS, Ghana Living Standards Survey 3 (GLSS 3)-1991 v1.1
Access authority
Name Affiliation Email URL
Dr. Grace Bediako Ghana Statistical Service statservice@gmail.com www.statsghana.gov.gh

Disclaimer and copyrights

Disclaimer
The original collector of the data, GSS and any producers or sponsors cited in this document bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Copyright
(c) 1995, Ghana Statistical Service

Metadata production

DDI Document ID
DDI-GHA-GSS-GLSS 3-199 1-v2.0
Producers
Name Abbreviation Affiliation Role
Ghana Statistical Service GSS Office of the President Data collection, processing, dissemination and archiving the survey
Date of Metadata Production
2008-08-01
DDI Document version
Version 2.0
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