Starting June 1999, after the intervention of NATO in the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia (FRY), the United Nations provided interim administration for the province. The consequences of the conflict on the living standards of the population were severe, with the collapse of the industrial sector, the paralysis of agriculture, and extensive damage to private housing, education and health facilities and other infrastructure. In addition, the conflict brought massive population displacement both within Kosovo and abroad.
A year later, Kosovo was in a process of transition from emergency relief to long-term economic development. The purpose of the survey was to provide crucial information for policy and program design for use by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), international donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the Kosovar community at large for poverty alleviation and inequality reduction.
During the same period, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was planning an agriculture and livestock survey. It was decided to join both surveys, in order to pool resources and provide better assistance to the newly re-formed Statistical Office of Kosovo (SOK) and to take into account the extensive Kosovar peasant household economy. Therefore the agriculture and food aid modules are more developed than those of a standard LSMS survey.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also was interested in information related to labor force and employment. They had run a socio-demographic and reproductive health survey with the United Nations Population Fund, covering approximately 10,000 households at the end of 1999. IOM provided the urban sampling frame for the present survey.