# **Appendix 1. Fedesarrollo’s Longitudinal Social Survey,** **_Encuesta Longitudinal Social_ , ELS**

Since September 1999, Fedesarrollo _,_ a Colombian think-tank, with the support of the Bogota, Cali, and Bucaramanga Chambers of Commerce, has carried out its social survey in these three cities (ELS, 2008). This survey, entitled the _Fedesarrollo_ Longitudinal Social Survey since 2004 (Stage IX), has become the only household panel for Colombia. It monitors a group of households for four years through a rotating panel. The method employed corresponds to probability-based sampling at all stages, stratified with random unit selection at each stage and final selection of the informant according to a prior recount of the number of households in the assigned city block. The sample is stratified and taken on a multistage basis in each city through the selection of primary sample units (censual sectors), followed by secondary units (city blocks) and final sample units (the selected household). The sample framework is built around the cartographic inventory and lists of dwellings, households, and persons obtained from information gathered by the 1993 _Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda_ (National Census of Population and Housing) with the latest updates for 2004 obtained from each city’s planning office and the DANE. The new households that replaced the sample ones refusing to cooperate with the survey—as well as the 10 additional cities that now form a part of the survey—were selected on the basis of the cartographic inventory and the list of blocks and dwellings updated to the year 2005 (the most recent year) provided by _Servinformación_ , an entity supported by the DANE and the planning offices of the cities involved.

The 2008 stage has seen a substantial increase in the sample with the introduction of 10 more cities that form part of the “national urban total” defined by the _Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística_ (DANE) (National Department of Statistics Administration) for the calculation of unemployment figures. Coverage therefore includes the urban population of Bogota, Cali, and Bucaramanga, as well as the cities of Medellín, Barranquilla, Manizales, Pasto, Pereira, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Montería, Cartagena, and Villavicencio. The first three cities represent 73 percent of the sample, and the other 10 represent the remaining 27 percent.

The sample is representative for each city and for the three large cities together, as well as by strata—low (strata 1 and 2), middle (strata 3 and 4), and upper (strata 5 and 6)—for each of the three main cities, these three cities together, and the combination of all 13 cities together. The first two strata represent 46 percent of the sample; the following two, 45 percent; and the two highest strata, the remaining 9 percent. The size of the sample rose from 1,865 homes in the previous stage to 4,005 in Stage XIII. There were 1,287 households from the previous stage that were surveyed again in this one. The 2008 survey is divided into eight thematic modules: (i) housing and services, (ii) demography; (iii) education; (iv) health care; (v) labor market and social security; (vi) welfare conditions; (vii) knowledge, coverage, and valuation of social programs; and (viii) vulnerability. The survey was carried out door-to-door, with all household members present. If certain household members could not be present at the time of the survey, other responsible adult members of the household were asked to answer their survey questions. The questions concerning the household as a whole were answered by the head of the household or his or her spouse or, in the case of their absence, by another responsible adult household member.

The variables captured by ELS 2008 enable socioeconomic indicators related to poverty (by income and spending) to be estimated as well as other multidimensional aspects of poverty, such as access to housing, employment and income, social security, education, and public services. In the past, special modules were undertaken that included questions pertinent to Colombian society, such as voluntary or enforced internal migration, access to credit and savings, or child labor and mortality, among others. In the last stage, some of the questions regarding victimization were asked a second time, enabling the citizens’ perception about security and safety in their home cities to be explored. Moreover, the latest stage incorporates additional questions that enable labor transactions to be described in detail (from the last job until the present) and about workers’ affiliation to the social 22