<mark>“We will not be able to reach our goal unless we have data to show whether or not people are actually lifting themselves out of poverty [.] Collecting good data is one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty. We pledge, working alongside our partners in countries and international organizations, to do something that makes common sense and is long overdue: to conduct surveys in all countries that will assess whether people’s lives are improving.”</mark><sup>6</sup> Alleviating data deprivation and collecting household survey data for the robust measurement of living standards every three years in each of the 78 IDA countries imply that a total of 390 surveys will need to be carried out over the period of 2016-2030. To achieve this, the WBG would need to commit to working with the national statistical offices (NSOs) on existing household survey operations that are already integrated into the national statistical systems (NSSs). The NSOs would be supported in line with the recommendations of the “World Bank Shared Strategy for Household Surveys: Tracking the Twin Goals and Informing Investment and Policy Decisions” (henceforth referred to as the World Bank Household Survey Strategy).

Achieving this ambitious objective will require a significant infusion of financial and human capital into the household survey agenda. The objective of this paper is to estimate the resource requirements to implement 390 household surveys across 78 IDA countries from 2016 to 2030 for monitoring and understanding the progress towards the Twin Goals and the SDGs, and to provide direct technical assistance to national statistical offices (NSOs) on all facets of survey design, implementation, and dissemination towards timely production of quality household survey data. Our approach to costing household survey data production is unique, as it makes use of detailed data on actual survey implementation and technical assistance costs from a group of countries around the world, unlike previous attempts at costing household survey data gaps.<sup>7</sup> The budget envelope for achieving the objective laid out by WBG President Jim Yong Kim across the 20162030 period is estimated at USD 945 million, of which USD 692 million is projected to cover the costs of household survey implementation across 78 countries, and USD 253 million is projected to cover the costs of direct technical assistance to be provided to the NSOs.<sup>8</sup> These estimates imply

> 6 The press release is available at: <u>http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/10/15/world-bank-new-endpoverty-tool-surveys-in-poorest-countries.</u>

> 7 This paper is also different in scope from existing studies such as Jerven (2014) and Demombynes and Sandefur (2014) in that it focuses on the resource requirements for implementing multi-topic household surveys (that collect information to construct a comprehensive welfare aggregate for monitoring poverty and shared prosperity), and does not focus on other data sources.

> 8 Previously, United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN) (2015) have provided resource needs for several lines of survey data production, including multi-topic household surveys. The differences in resource need estimates between UNSDSN (2015) and our study can be traced back to assumptions regarding sample size per survey, the scope of technical assistance, local survey implementation cost parameters, and increases in implementation unit costs. In communication with Geoffrey Greenwell of Paris21, based on the work of UNSDSN (2015) and following minor adjustments to their estimates to take into account local overhead costs, our total cost estimate of 945 million for 390 surveys compares well with their estimate of 1,006 million for the same target. The following may be traced as the main sources for the remaining discrepancy. The authors assume a sample size of 5,000 per survey while we assume 7,000. While, the total technical assistance estimate is 36 percent higher in our study

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