The Forced Displacement Survey (FDS) is UNHCR’s new flagship household survey programme designed to standardize, streamline, and build on the existing UNHCR survey landscape to produce high-quality and timely data on people forced to flee. The FDS is comparable across countries over time and aligned with international statistical standards. It has the purpose of providing actionable evidence to inform the government’s operational and policy-related data needs, as well as its humanitarian and development partners.
As a multi-topic survey, the FDS collected household and individual level data on the socioeconomic characteristics and living conditions of targeted populations. Data was collected through face-to-face household interviews, where up to four household members aged 15 and above were interviewed: (1) the head of the household or a household member who was knowledgeable about the household; (2) a randomly selected household member who provided information about individual life experiences; (3) the caregiver of a randomly selected child under five years of age; and (4) a randomly selected woman who gave birth in the last two years.
South Sudan was the first pilot country where FDS has been implemented. South Sudan hosted refugees since its independence in 2011, despite facing multiple social challenges and internal conflicts. By April 2024 South Sudan hosted 450,000 refugees, mostly from Sudan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, and other countries.
The FDS in South Sudan collected data on a nationally representative sample of registered refugees and on a sample of the national population living in proximity of refugees located in the north of South Sudan. Data collection occurred between April and December 2023. The final realized sample of the FDS in South Sudan was composed of around 3,000 households, all located in rural areas. Among them, 68 per cent are refugee households and 32 per cent belong to host communities.
