Abstract
The MRC/Wits Agincourt Unit (www.agincourt.co.za) has been collecting information on health, social and demographic outcomes in the Bushbuckridge area in the north-east of South Africa since 1992. The study site of the Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) comprising initially twenty villages was selected because it fell into an area previously designated as a "homeland" (Gazankulu) and thus exemplified many of the health and developmental challenges facing rural South Africa. The data collection process involves annual (since 1999) census rounds during which the main demographic and socio-economic variables are captured, as well as, since 2000, more detailed supplementary modules. After 2007 the study site was expanded to include another eleven villages.
The location of the Agincourt HDSS in a rural historically deprived area, with a long history of data collection, makes it an ideal place to investigate development processes. In 2015 DataFirst, the UK Data Archive and the MRC/Wits Agincourt Unit received an ESRC/NRF International Centre Partnership Grant1 to use the data from the Agincourt surveillance system to investigate the quality of rural electrification data and to research the impact of electrification on local communities. In terms of this grant, a panel dataset was constructed from the Agincourt HDSS to facilitate this research. In line with the ESRC/NRF policies of open access a version of the household level panel is being made available via the DataFirst open data portal. The data were extracted in 2016, so the latest information in this release is from 2015 although the latest asset information is from the 2014 census round.
