# Annex E: Sampling

## The processes employed to select the wards, households, and respondents was as follows:

<u>Ward (cluster) selection: We used the list of wards and its population figures from the 2021 Nepal Census.</u> The sampling frame consisted of the list of all wards within each selected province. Each province comprises of districts and within each district are municipalities (urban and rural municipalities) which are further broken down into wards – the smallest administrative units. Districts were stratified by urban and rural areas to ensure greater statistical power for detecting differences between the 2 localities. The stratification by urban-rural was done to be proportionate to the population share of each group within a province, resulting in a self-weighted sample, allowing for analysis of data at province level and further at locality level within each province. To select the wards, a random start point was generated to negate any bias in the list and to provide an independent chance of selection from the list. The probability proportionate to size (PPS), gives an independent chance of selection to each wards as per its population size, i.e., a higher chance of selection to wards with higher population size.<sup>37</sup> As a first step of random selection of wards, the cumulative frequency (CF) of population of households in a ward was calculated. Since the unit of analysis for our study purpose was households having certain criteria and we expected the main outcome variables (social norms) to vary at household levels (as opposed to at an individual level), the household population figures served as the basis for sampling purpose (as opposed to population size of individuals for a ward). Applying PPS, in the first step, the required number of wards were selected for Categories 1 and 2 households (households with working and non-working females respectively). Following this, the clusters allocated for Category 3 (households with migrant population) households were taken as a subset of the wards selected for Categories 1 and 2. The survey was carried out in both rural and urban locations in a total of 4 provinces.

<u>Selection of the random starting point within each ward during in-field random sampling of households: For</u> every ward, a predefined landmark for starting point was chosen. The predefined landmark consisted of i) school, ii) health post, iii) central marketplace or iv) ward office. The chosen landmark for every cluster was rotated to account for randomization and to avoid interviewer bias. Once the landmark was chosen, each enumerator used the spin-the-bottle method to randomize direction in which the survey took place. After starting with a household, enumerators used a skip interval to survey every third household in rural areas and every fifth household in urban areas. Once the household was chosen, the interviewer used the screener to ascertain the eligibility as per the category quota set aside for them.<sup>38</sup> <u>Respondent selection:</u> The respondents were selected based on a screener instrument that surveyed the following factors:

1. Gender: Both males and females within a household were interviewed. However, for households with migrant men, only the women were interviewed.

2. Age group: Only women within the economically active age range, i.e., between the ages of 18-59 years

> 37 38 With a target of 10 households per cluster, Categories 1 and 2 households were selected from 85 clusters and those for Category 3 from 30 clusters. The 85 clusters allocated for Categories 1 and 2 were distributed across the provinces based on proportion of household population, while the 30 clusters allocated for the Category 3 were distributed as per the proportion of migrant population within the 4 provinces.

> 38 Note that selection of wards during the pilot (for which we have selected Bagmati Province) did not use the PPS method. Since Bagmati is a Province shortlisted for the final survey as well, the Solutions team first finalized wards sampled for the final survey, and for the pilot, selected wards not included in the final list and that are in proximity to Kathmandu, ensuring both rural and urban wards were included. In-field sampling within each ward was random and enumerators had to use the same process that they will follow during the final survey.

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