Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
What’s the Date of Publication? When was the Another area of data analysis that requires a
source published? Is the source current or out- skeptical eye is employment-related data. It is
of-date? Topic areas of continuing or rapid difficult to count the employed accurately,
development, such as the sciences, demand more especially in developing countries. Employment
current information. data often do not take into account the number of
people involved in informal or unrecorded
Who is the Intended Audience? Is the activities, seasonal agricultural laborers,
publication aimed at a specialized or a general women’s agricultural labor, or child labor.
audience? Is the source too elementary -- aimed
at the general public? Thus, official employment statistics should be
viewed in light of these inadequacies. Labor
What is the Coverage of the Report or force data that provides a list of the categories
Document? Does the work update other used (e.g., employed, unemployed,
sources, substantiate other materials/reports that underemployed, own-account workers, unpaid
you have read, or add new information to the family workers) will help you determine the
topic area? quality of the measure (Worldbank 1997).
Is it a Primary or Secondary Source? Primary When you feel that the employment data is
sources are the raw material of the research unreliable, looking at other economic indicators
process, they represent the records of research or will help you develop a clearer understanding of
events as first described. Secondary sources are the situation. For example, if your employment
based on primary sources. These sources data state that only 25 percent of the population
analyze, describe, and synthesize the primary or is economically active. However, data from a
original source. If the source is secondary, does recent poverty survey state that only 5 percent of
it accurately relate information from primary the population live below the absolute poverty
sources? line, you can conclude that the employment data
is not a good measure to use.
Importantly, Is the Document or Report Well-
Referenced? When data and/or figures are
given, are they followed by a footnote, endnote -
- which provides a full reference for the
information at the end of the page or document -
- or the name and date of the source (e.g., Burke
1997)? Without proper reference to the source
M. Katherine McCaston, HLS Advisor June 2005
Updated from M.Katherine McCaston (1998) -Partnership & Household Livelihood Security Unit 4
3. Consult a local expert in the topic area.
Make use of the valuable resources around
you. More than likely, there are colleagues
Questions for Evaluating Data at your country office, in local government
Quality offices, or other institutions that can easily
help resolve an issue, answer your
• What are your source’s questions, or direct you to the answers.
credentials?
• What methods were used?
• Is the information current or out- THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA
of-date? DISAGGREGATION
The level of data aggregation or disaggregation
• Is the intended audience other
simply refers the extent to which the information
researchers or the general
or data is broken down.
public?
• Is the document’s coverage of
Aggregate Data: Aggregate data are data that
the topic area broad or too
describe a group of observations, with the
narrow?
grouping made on a defined criterion. For
• Is it a primary or secondary
example, geographic data are often grouped by
source? If it is a secondary
spatial units such as region, state, census tract,
source, does it accurately cover
etc. Aggregate data can also be defined by time
and report on the primary
interval, for example: the number of persons that
sources?
migrated to urban areas in the last five years.
• Does the author provide
references for the data and Disaggregated Data: These are data on
information reported? individuals or single entities, for example: age,
• Do the numbers make sense? sex, level of education, income, occupation, etc.
Are they the numbers you want – These data are generally more informative and
cases versus percentages? useful than aggregate data.
When compared to related data
are the measures somewhat There have been increasing efforts over the last
consistent? couple of decades to encourage more data
disaggregation, particularly in the international
development arena. Strong emphasis has been
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN DATA placed, for example, on data disaggregation by
SOURCES DISAGREE? gender, ethnicity, age, and location. This type of
When conducting secondary data analysis, it is data enables researchers and development
not uncommon to come across data sources that practitioners to obtain a more comprehensive
disagree or conflict with each other. To help understanding of how groups within a society
overcome this problem you should: react differently to and/or are effected differently
by various conditions or events (e.g., structural
1. Decide if the source of the data is a primary adjustment, other socioeconomic conditions,
or a secondary source. In other words, look environmental degradation, government policies,
for a citation. If the source is simply development projects, etc.).
quoting a number or statistic, it may not be
accurate, and should be taken cautiously. For example, although women have been found
to be the primary agriculturists in many societies,
2. If you cannot find the original source of the until recently the majority of data related to
data in question, look for more data sources farming was gathered from male farmers and
covering the topic and determine the most often did not represent the same reality
widely held conclusion. If two independent experienced by women farmers. Thus the lack
secondary data sources agree, the of gender-disaggregated agricultural data has
information is probably more believable. been a major constraint for effective integration
M. Katherine McCaston, HLS Advisor June 2005
Updated from M.Katherine McCaston (1998) -Partnership & Household Livelihood Security Unit 5
of women in the planning and implementation of alone do not tell us why the condition or status
agriculture and rural development programs exists. This limitation can be overcome in two
(FAO 1997). ways.
• It informs and complements primary data • Secondary data can not reveal individual or
collection, saving time and resources often group values, beliefs, or reasons that may be
associated with over-collecting primary underlying current trends (Beaulieu 1992).
data.
UNDP
1997 Sustainable Livelihoods: Concepts,
Principles and Approaches to Indicator
Development (Draft Discussion Paper).
Available online (telnet):
www.undp.org/seped/sl/ind2.htm.
Worldbank
1997 World Development Indicators.
Washington, D.C.: Worldbank.