Pakistan Social & Living Standards Measurement survey (PSLM) is flagship survey of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and the main mechanism to provide data for Monitoring Development plans at National/Provincial/District level for evidence based policy making. PSLM surveys are being conducted since 2004 at alternate years and have become regular activity of PBS since 2015. For new series of PSLM/HIES surveys and keeping in view the SDGs and changed ground realities, questionnaire were reviewed by Technical Committee, the same amended questionnaire were used for HIES 2018-19 survey. PBS being the National Statistical Organization is responsible for monitoring & reporting of SDGs and reporting on 58 indicators of SDGs. Out of 58 indicators “31” indicators are being monitored through PSLM surveys. So far seven rounds of PSLM HIES (Provincial level) and seven round of PSLM (District Level) has been completed. PSLM district level survey is the main source of monitoring developments plans at district level & its data used for Estimation of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by PD&R.

Brief on PSLM Survey

PSLM Survey is a regular activity of PBS since 1^st July 2015, earlier it was PSDP funded project started in July 2004 and continued up to 30^th June 2015. It was designed to provide Social & Economic indicators in the alternate years at provincial and district levels.  The data generated through surveys was used to assist the government in formulating the poverty reduction strategy as well as development plans at district level for the rapid assessment of programs in the overall context of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As such this survey was one of the main mechanisms for the monitoring of MDGs indicator as out of 16 targets and 37 indicators adopted by Pakistan, 6 targets and 15 indicators were monitored through PSLM Surveys, which were conducted at district level and at Provincial level respectively at alternate years.

PSLM District level survey collected information on key Social indicators which is the main source of estimation of Multi-Dimensional Poverty, whereas provincial level surveys (Social & HIES) collected information on social indicators as well as on Income and Consumption. HIES data is used by Planning Commission for estimation of consumption based Poverty.

The sample size of PSLM surveys district level was approximately 80000 households and approximately 26000 at Provincial level. Ten Surveys (District/Provincial were conducted during PSLM Project w.e.f. 2004 to June, 2015 and reports are published and micro data sets along with reports are also placed at PBS Website.

PSLM and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

UN has adopted new development plan for post 2015 monitoring called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Under SDGs there are 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators. The agenda of SDGs is very comprehensive and it is designed in such a way that they are addressing the individuals rather than the households so that benefits can reach up to individual level. There are Global goals, regional and sub-regional goals to address the issues. United Nations Statistics Division has assigned the task of monitoring & reporting of SDGs to the National Statistical organizations globally, therefore Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is the central Statistical organization for monitoring of SDGs with the network of 34 regional /field offices all over Pakistan.

As PSLM questionnaire was not changed during the life of project, therefore, keeping in view the changed ground realities & adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Technical Committee was constituted to review both questionnaires of PSLM (District & Provincial Level). Four sub-committees were formed on

• Poverty Labour & Employment
• Education
• Health
• Housing Water & Sanitation

In the light of the recommendations of the sub-committees questionnaires have been amended and then approved by the main technical committee, the following modules were added: –

Besides these modules certain questions were also added in different modules to cover SDGs indicators through PSLM/HIES Survey

PSLM Surveys instrumental in monitoring of SDGs. It is worth mentioning here that, after detail work on mapping of SDGs it is found that 31 indicators of SDGs will be monitored through PSLM Surveys.

PBS has also chalked down the series of surveys till the completion of SDGs i.e.2030.  

Main Indicators

Indicators on Demographic characteristics, Education, Health, Employment, Household Assets, Household Amenities, Population Welfare and Water Supply & Sanitation are developed at National/Provincial /District levels.

SAMPLE DESIGN OF PSLM SURVEY

Universe: The universe of this survey consists of all urban and rural areas of the four provinces and Islamabad excluding military restricted areas.
Sampling Frame: Former FBS has developed its own urban area frame, which was updated in 2003. Each city/town has been divided into enumeration blocks consisting of 200-250 households identifiable through sketch map. Each enumeration block has been classified into three categories of income groups i.e. low, middle and high, keeping in view the living standard of the majority of the people. List of villages published by Population Census Organization obtained as a consequence of Population Census 1998 has been taken as rural frame.

NO. OF ENUMERATION BLOCKS AND VILLAGES AS PER SAMPLING FRAME

Stratification Plan

A. Urban Domain: Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, Sialkot, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Peshawar and Quetta, have been considered as large sized cities. Each of these cities constitutes a separate stratum and has further been sub-stratified according to low, middle and high-income groups. After excluding population of large sized cities, the remaining urban population in each defunct Division in all the provinces has been grouped together to form a stratum.
B. Rural Domain: Each district in Punjab, Sindh and NWFP provinces has been grouped together to constitute a stratum. Whereas defunct administrative Division has been treated as stratum in Balochistan province.
Sample Size and Its Allocation: Keeping in view the objectives of the National/Provincial Level survey the sample size has been fixed at approximately 17600 households comprising 1252 sample villages/ enumeration blocks, which is expected to produce reliable results at provincial level. For the District level survey the sample is fixed at approximately 79600 households comprising 5563 sample villages / enumeration blocks, which is expected to produce reliable results at district level.

SAMPLE SIZE

Sample Design: A two-stage stratified sample design has been adopted in this survey.
Selection of Primary Sampling Units (PSUs): Villages and enumeration blocks in rural and urban areas, respectively, have been taken as Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). Sample PSUs have been selected from strata/sub-strata with Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) method of sampling technique.
Selection of Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs): Households within sample PSUs have been taken as Secondary Sampling Units (SSUs). A specified number of households i.e. 16 and 12 from each sample PSU of rural & urban area have been selected, respectively using systematic sampling technique with a random start.

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

At both individual and household level, the PSLM Survey collects information on a wide range of topics using an integrated questionnaire.  The questionnaire comprises a number of different sections, each of which looks at a particular aspect of household behavior or welfare.  Data collected under various Rounds include education, diarrhea, immunization, reproductive health, pregnancy history, maternity history, family planning, pre and post-natal care, access to basic services and income & expenditure.

DATA QUALITY AND RELIABILITY MEASURES

Each team comprising a supervisor and 2 male and 2 female enumerators, collect data from the field. Data quality in PSLM Survey has been ensured through a built in system of checking of field work by the supervisors in the field and also monitored through teams from the PBS headquarters. Regional/ Field offices ensure the data quality through preliminary editing at their office level. The entire data entry is carried out at the PBS headquarters, Islamabad and the data entry programme used had a number of in built consistency checks. Coefficient of Variation (CV’s) and Confidence Limit of important key indicators is also worked out to determine the reliability of the estimates.