The Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey (ESS) is a collaborative project between the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia (CSA) and the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study- Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) team. The objective of the LSMS-ISA is to collect multi-topic panel household level data with a special focus on improving agriculture statistics and the link between agriculture and other sectors of the economy. The project also aims to build capacity, share knowledge across countries, and improve survey methodologies and technology. The specific objectives of the ESS are: Development of an innovative model for collecting agricultural data in conjunction with household data; Strengthening the capacity to generate a sustainable system for producing accurate and timely information on agricultural households in Ethiopia; Development of a model of inter-institutional collaboration between the CSA and relevant federal and local government agencies as well as national and international research and development partners; and Comprehensive analysis of household income, well-being, and socio-economic characteristics of households in rural areas and small towns. The ESS contains several innovative features: Integration of household welfare data with agricultural data; Creation of a panel data set that can be used to study welfare dynamics, the role of agriculture in development and the changes over time in health, education and labor activities, inter alia;. Collection of information on the network of buyers and sellers of goods with which the household interacts; Expanding the use of GPS units for measuring agricultural land areas; Involvement of multiple actors in government, academia and the donor community in the development of the survey and its contents as well as its implementation and analysis; Creation of publicly available micro data sets for researchers and policy makers
