Fifteen Years of LSMS-ISA: Longitudinal Surveys for Research and Development

The Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) is a household survey program housed within the World Bank's Development Data Group that provides technical assistance to national statistical offices (NSOs) in low- and middle-income countries on the design and implementation of multi-topic household surveys. The program also develops and promotes the adoption of innovations and standards in survey data collection to support evidence-based policymaking.

Since 2008, the program has been implementing the LSMS-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) initiative, which has been supporting unique systems of longitudinal surveys that are designed to improve the understanding of household and individual welfare, livelihoods, and smallholder agriculture in Africa. Partnering with national statistical offices (NSOs) in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, the LSMS-ISA has supported over 33 country-owned, nationally-representative, multi-topic longitudinal household survey rounds, amounting to more than 160,000 household interviews across Africa and leading to more than 6,400 publications that have been informed by the data from the LSMS-ISA-supported surveys. In the words of Professor Douglas Gollin (Tufts University), “any objective look at the uses and impact of the LSMS-ISA program leads to the inescapable conclusion that the current effort has had a significant impact on research in development economics – and correspondingly on global knowledge.”

The conference will feature research papers that are sole- or co-authored by African researchers that are using the data from any of the surveys that have been supported by the LSMS-ISA initiative in eight partner countries. Preference will be given to African presenters.

We are inviting the submissions of full papers to be considered for this conference “Fifteen Years of LSMS-ISA: Longitudinal Surveys for Research and Development,” to be held on November 14, 2023, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This event will bring together top-tier researchers and high-level policymakers from within Africa to advance the dialogue on the research, policy, and development impacts of the LSMS-ISA initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa in general and Tanzania in particular. The conference will conclude with a panel discussion focused on (a) distilling the LSMS-ISA experience in the areas of statistical capacity building, and data use for research and policy, and (b) the role that longitudinal multi-topic household surveys can play against the background of climate change, future large-scale health shocks, and intensifying fragility and conflict.

Submission Instructions

We invite authors to submit full papers that are using the data from any of the surveys that have been supported by the LSMS-ISA initiative in eight partner countries, especially those that are based on the Tanzania National Panel Survey.

Only full papers will be considered, including papers that are under review or forthcoming or that have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals over the period of 2020-2023. The papers must be sole- or co-authored by African researchers. Preference will be given to African presenters, and the presentations will be in-person only. We invite submissions that are centered on any of the following topics:

• Poverty dynamics, income, and welfare
• Nutrition and food security
• Climate change and resilience
• Structural transformation and labor mobility
• Smallholder agriculture, including productivity, technology adoption, climate-smart agriculture.
• Gender
• Methods and tools for survey data collection

All submissions should be sent to lsms2023@worldbank.org by September 15, 2023, with the subject line: “Submission to Fifteen Years of LSMS-ISA Conference.” Please indicate the full name, title and affiliation of the presenter in your submission. All papers and presentations must be in English.

Logistics

The organizers will cover the travel and accommodation arrangements and expenses of the presenters of the selected papers. The presentations will be in-person only.

Organizing Committee

• Emilian Karugendo, Director, Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics.
• Amparo Palacios-Lopez, Senior Economist, World Bank
• Akuffo Amankwah, Economist, World Bank

For more information, please contact the LSMS team at lsms2023@worldbank.org.