Baseline survey design in Indonesia

A project baseline in Indonesia should relate local livelihoods and exposure to the definitions used in official statistics. BPS household surveys provide welfare measures and population benchmarks; project fieldwork establishes how people use land, resources, and services that an investment may affect. Agree on the intended comparisons before selecting questions.

The Tanimbar case study connects socioeconomic compilation, household and community instruments, sampling and migration planning. The Maluku indicator example develops the question-design work. Each application requires a defined study population, reviewed translations, and field testing.

Geography and survey coverage

Use Tanimbar's administrative geography to organize source tables and initial field planning. Island connections and travel conditions also shape how a team can list households, reach respondents and revisit seasonal activities. Select an area in the map to inspect its source attributes.

Develop the household frame from settlement lists and field verification, and record residence separately from fishing grounds, gardens, landing places and markets. A district's outline helps locate those relationships; the survey and participatory inquiry establish who uses each place, in which season and under what arrangements. The spatial baseline guide develops the corresponding exposure and access measures.

Connect the survey to BPS evidence

Use the questionnaire and methodological notes for the selected BPS survey round. Susenas is a household sample survey; Podes describes village-level conditions and infrastructure. Their units and purposes differ, so each contributes a distinct part of the baseline.

The March 2024 Susenas consumption publication provides a documented basis for examining consumption definitions and reference periods. Prepare a comparison table showing the official question, project question, eligible respondent, recall period, unit, denominator, and calculation. Record changes that affect comparability.

For settlement context, use the Kepulauan Tanimbar Podes 2024 publication, published in February 2025. Check the table, observation date, and geographic coverage for each selected indicator. Retain historical Maluku Tenggara Barat names alongside current codes and names, with dates for any boundary changes. Household interviews can then establish the availability, affordability, and actual use of services recorded at village level.

The earlier Maluku materials also link to a 1983 Podes questionnaire. The institutional catalogue identifies this village-level survey as Pendataan Potensi Desa/Kelurahan 1983, produced by the Central Bureau of Statistics alongside the 1983 Agricultural Census. It provides historical question-design context; current comparisons require the definitions and coverage of the selected Podes round.

The Indonesia references include the national Susenas publication and local Podes editions. The Nepal discussion applies the same approach to a different set of census and household-survey products.

Project question sets

Select questions according to the anticipated impact pathways and monitoring requirements. The sets below provide project-specific prompts to develop alongside the official statistical measures.

The accompanying materials include a household-questionnaire appendix to an Environmental and Social Baseline Study Plan (October 2013) and a structured questionnaire dated 12 January 2015. Use these project instruments alongside the official BPS questionnaires and tabulations for the selected comparison year.

Develop the interview instrument, field manual, and analysis specifications together. Assign each variable a stable identifier, respondent, period, unit, response code, and skip rule. The questionnaire and fieldwork guide explains this process.

Define households and support relationships

The household questions distinguish residents, additional family members, and dependants living elsewhere. Set explicit residence and shared-provisioning criteria for the roster, aligned with the selected BPS measure where a national comparison is intended. Record each person once, with separate fields for usual residence, temporary absence, and inclusion in household consumption.

Use mutually exclusive relationship codes and link household, person, structure, and parcel identifiers. Record remittances and support between households separately. This preserves both the denominator for welfare calculations and the wider relationships relevant to vulnerability and livelihood restoration.

Review Bahasa Indonesia wording with qualified speakers and respondents familiar with local usage. Test how people understand household membership, occupation, ownership, and dependence, including seasonal work and shared provisioning.

Measure livelihoods and resource access

Choose local topics through scoping and consultation with women, young people, tenants, wage workers, resource users, and people with accessibility needs, as well as community leaders. Fishing, agricultural production, forest-resource collection, and transport connections are possible lines of inquiry in a Maluku study.

Record each livelihood activity with its participants, season, effort, receipts, costs, and resource inputs. For fishing, this can include trips, landing places, catch units, own-consumed quantities, sales, and access arrangements. Include crew members, traders, and other users where the impact pathway extends to them.

Link resource use to the household and relevant location. Record ownership, customary claims, actual access, and obligations separately; document competing accounts for further investigation. Participatory mapping helps explain seasonal use and cultural significance, while rights verification establishes the status of each claim.

These records support estimates of livelihood participation, seasonal dependence, net cash earnings, and exposure to a restricted access point. Report noncash production through quantities or a documented valuation, with its treatment in each indicator specified.

Compare consumption and welfare

Prepare an item list and calculation method before fieldwork. Cover purchased, own-produced, and received food; meals away from home; and relevant nonfood expenditure. Retain local quantities and units, conversion evidence, prices, and the eligible roster. The economic-integration questions include several expenditure periods: attach the intended period and unit to each item before calculating totals.

The FAO, World Bank, and LSMS guidance addresses food coverage, recall, respondent choice, and local units. For comparison with a BPS welfare or poverty measure, reproduce the required item coverage, valuation, denominator, price basis, and poverty-line edition. An abbreviated project module supports a narrower, explicitly defined indicator.

Report the distribution within the project population and differences between exposure groups using the survey's sampling design. District estimates require a frame and selection probabilities that cover the district. In follow-up rounds, preserve comparable questions and timing, and account for price changes and seasonal conditions.

The quantitative lab uses synthetic records and abstract currency units to demonstrate weighting, price adjustment, and attrition.

Prepare for fieldwork

Complete the bilingual instrument, variable dictionary, BPS comparison table, settlement and household frame, seasonal calendar, and consent protocol. Pilot them with households representing the study's main livelihood and access arrangements. Test interview duration, translations, skip paths, local units, and roster consistency, then document the resulting changes.

Present official statistics, project survey estimates, and qualitative findings with their respective populations, dates, and methods. This gives practitioners a clear basis for comparing conditions and designing mitigation.