Definition
BATTLES consists of a set of 22 separate variables, each covering one year from 1997 to 2018. The variables report the number of days, within the specified year, in which battles occurred within a 10-kilometer circular buffer around each DHS cluster location. By adding BATTLES to your data cart, you are in effect adding 22 separate variables (BATTLES_1997 to BATTLES_2018), one variable for each year. The 2018 data in IPUMS-DHS end on September 15, 2018.
Data for BATTLES are obtained from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project ACLED [URL omitted from DDI.], downloaded on September 15, 2018. According to ACLED [URL omitted from DDI.], data on BATTLES include:
Battles with no change in territory (a battle between two violent armed groups where control of the contested location does not change);
Battles in which a non-state actor overtakes territory (a battle where non-state actors win control of a location);
Battles in which the government regains territory (a battle in which the government regains control of a location).
Users should be aware that all three kinds of battles are included in the variable BATTLES. Also, ACLED [URL omitted from DDI.] data provide differing levels of "geo-precision" or locational accuracy. IPUMS-DHS includes all levels of locational accuracy in its variable BATTLES. Please refer to ACLED [URL omitted from DDI.] for additional details on ACLED's procedures, methods of data collection, and data revision.
BATTLES, like the other IPUMS-DHS contextual variables, is calculated and based on sources external to the DHS data. For more information on IPUMS-DHS contextual variables and how they are constructed, refer to the documentation [URL omitted from DDI.] on these variables.
