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Budget and calendar

Budgets depend on local conditions in the country. Staff salary levels vary, and depend to a large extent on the internal economic situation of each country. The standard means of transport also depend on national conditions; in some countries, air-conditioned 4x4s are an unimaginable luxury, while in others they are genuinely essential to getting the job done. The type and amount of external technical assistance varies according to the technical capacity of the implementing institution.

However, there are ways of structuring budgets and timelines which are common to all household survey operations, regardless of the country.

Budget preparation


Referring to the model budget in this section will help to ensure that all the relevant expenditure components are included. The example is a starting point from which to calculate costs and work out how to finance them.

Before the budget can be prepared, one must have an idea of the size of the sample, the period during which data will be collected, and the length of the interview. Only then can the number of field teams be estimated. These basic parameters affect staff costs, outlays on transport and travel allowances, and the equipment which will be used. If they are not clearly defined at the start, it is advisable to prepare the budget in several variants, based on different assumptions of size.

All costs must be included in the budget. Even if staff salaries are to be paid by the implementing institution, their value must still be incorporated into the budget. Technical assistance provided by international bodies should be valued at its real cost, although it is not paid for directly from the budget. Perhaps it will not be necessary to buy vehicles because those acquired recently for another project can be used; nonetheless, their value should be estimated and entered as a cost to be borne by the implementing institution, since it would otherwise be using them for some other productive purpose. The same goes for office space; if rooms within the institution itself are used rather than renting new premises, their imputed value should be included in the budget.

The example below is a conceptual model which might need to be broken down into discrete budget lines if the donors require the accounts to be in a specific format. If this is the case, the core team’s administrative support staff, specifically the Accounting or Finance Officer, should be responsible for dealing with the various accounting methods.

[Include here a budget outline; also provide XLS file]

WARNING: Underestimating the value of some items, or forgetting that the price of some materials might change between drafting the budget and purchasing them, can seriously endanger the success of the project.

RECOMMENDATION: Take great care when writing the budget-lines for the project; accurately assess the value of each item and the amount or quantity which will be needed. Experience has shown that there is a tendency in projects of this sort to forget about or undervalue the costs of certain activities; for example, the training of field staff, or the external technical assistance needed over the lifetime of the project.

Calendar of Activities (Timeline)


To set up any household survey, a large number of people need to undertake preparatory activities in a coordinated way. It is therefore essential to establish a plan for all the activities needed to implement the survey. Although such a plan will of course be tailored to each specific situation, there are elements in it which are common to all countries.

In the model Calendar of Activities below, the tasks are divided into seven main areas:

  • financing, management logistics and fieldwork
  • questionnaire development
  • staffing and training
  • sampling
  • data management
  • analysis and dissemination of reports and microdata
  • technical assistance

[Gant charts]

Some key activities need to be implemented in a logical order of precedence. However, many tasks can be carried out in parallel with each other, as long as there are qualified people available to work at the same time. If not, some of the activities which could be done concurrently will have to be carried out in sequence.

In this example, the preparatory phase lasts for ten months. The implementing institution already has experience of preparing projects of similar size, and it has good relations with its funders and with well-qualified consultants; for these reasons, the preparatory phase is slightly shorter than would normally be the case.

The fieldwork phase lasts for a whole year. A look at the model budget shows that the budget line for field staff is for a total of 14 months – the 12 months when the survey will be in the field, one month of training, and one month per year worked of holiday entitlement, in line with local labour laws. An extra month has been budgeted for in the case of the team leaders, so that they can take part in the questionnaire pre-test.

The final phase, for analysis and dissemination of the results and microdata, is here given only the six months necessary to set the basic analysis work in motion. In this specific case, there are two factors which shorten this phase:

  • protocols for data dissemination were agreed in advance and have been integrated into the statistical agency’s practices
  • the staff have good analysis capacity, and consultants have been selected in advance to guide and assist them in this task

References