Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

For every childHealth, Education, Equality, ProtectionADVANCE HUMANITY

WHAT IS MICS?

For more information please write to:mics@unicef.org

or contact:MICS CoordinatorStrategic Information SectionDivision of Policy and PlanningUnited Nations Childrens FundThree United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017

www.unicef.orgwww.childinfo.orgwww.devinfo.org

The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is a household survey programme developed byUNICEF to assist countries in filling data gaps formonitoring human development in general and thesituation of children and women in particular.MICS is capable of producing statistically sound,internationally comparable estimates of social indi-cators such as the Millennium Development Goal(MDG) indicators. It is a flexible tool that is reason-ably inexpensive and relatively quick to implement.

EN-MICS Brochure.QXD 3/16/05 11:20 AM Page 1

March 2005

Eradicate

extreme

poverty an

d hunger

Achieve un

iversal pri

mary educ

ation

Promote g

ender equ

ality and

empower w

omen

Reduce ch

ild mortal

ity by two

thirds

among chi

ldren unde

r five

Reduce by

three qua

rters the m

aternal

mortality

ratio

Combat H

IV/AIDS, m

alaria and

other dise

ases

Ensure en

vironment

al sustain

ability

Develop a

global pa

rtnership

for develo

pment

Millenniu

m

Developm

ent

Goals

1

23

4

5

6

78

was originallydeveloped to

measure progress towards an interna-tionally agreed set of goals that emergedfrom the 1990 World Summit forChildren. The first round of MICS wasconducted around 1995 in more than60 countries. A second round of around65 surveys was conducted in 2000 andresulted in an increasing wealth of datato monitor the situation of children and women. For the first time it waspossible to monitor trends in manyindicators and set baselines for others.Current plans call for surveys to becarried out in more than 50 countriesaround the year 2005.

MICS questionnairesare designed in amodular fashion that can be easilycustomized to theneeds of a country.They consist of ahousehold question-naire, a questionnairefor women aged 15-49 and a question-naire for childrenunder the age of five(to be completed by the mother orother caregiver).

HOUSEHOLDHousehold character-istics, household listing, orphaned andvulnerable children,education, childlabour, water andsanitation, use ofinsecticide-treatedmosquito nets andsalt iodization, withoptional modules forchild discipline, childdisability, maternalmortality and securityof tenure and durabil-ity of housing.

WOMENWomens character-istics, child mortality,administration oftetanus toxoid,maternal and newborn health,marriage, polygyny,female genital muti-lation/cutting, con-traception, sexualbehaviour andHIV/AIDS knowledge,with optional mod-ules for unmet needsand domestic violence.

CHILDRENChildrens character-istics, birth registra-tion and early learning, vitamin A,breastfeeding, careof illness, malaria,immunization andanthropometry, with an optional module for childdevelopment.

PURPOSE

Information on some 20 of the 48 MDGindicators will be collected in the currentround of MICS, offering the largest singlesource of data for MDG monitoring. Inaddition, the current round of MICS willalso provide a monitoring tool for AWorld Fit for Children an internationalcompact that reflects commitments madeto children at the United Nations GeneralAssembly Special Session on Children inMay 2002 as well as for other majorinternational commitments such as theUnited Nations General Assembly SpecialSession on HIV/AIDS and the Abuja targets for malaria.

MONITORING QUESTIONNAIRESResults from the surveys, including national reports, standard sets of tabulations and microlevel data sets will all be made widely available after completion of thesurveys. Survey results are expected to become availablein late 2005 or early 2006 for most countries. Results fromthe surveys will also be made available in DevInfo, a powerful database that has been adapted from UNICEFsChildInfo technology specifically to monitor progresstowards the Millennium Development Goals. MICS resultswill also be available through UNICEFs website dedicatedto monitoring the situation of children and women atwww.childinfo.org. Results of the earlier round of MICScan be found on this website.

SURVEY RESULTS

SURVEY PLANSThe surveys are typically carried out by government organizations, with thesupport and assistance of UNICEF andother partners. Technical assistance andtraining for the surveys are providedthrough a series of regional workshops,covering questionnaire content, sam-pling and survey implementation; dataprocessing; quality and analysis of data;and report writing and dissemination.

Morocco

Mali

Ghana

Cameroon

Benin

0 50 100 150 200 250

EN-MICS Brochure.QXD 3/16/05 11:20 AM Page 2

/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict > /GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict > /AllowPSXObjects false /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown

/Description >>> setdistillerparams> setpagedevice