Survey methods and assessments

The IHSN does not finance nor provide technical support to survey implementation. Its role is to contribute to improving the quality, relevance, cost effectiveness, and accuracy of surveys by assessing and developing survey methods. This objective is achieved by implementing various projects, including:

• Developing a Question Bank as a central repository of international guidelines for survey design.

• Conducting assessments of how well specific issues are addressed in existing surveys. IHSN’s approach consists of (i) identifying key users of the data, (ii) describing the uses they make of the data and their particular needs in terms of relevance and reliability, (iii) translating these quality criteria into sector-specific assessment frameworks, (iv) assessing a large number of existing surveys with broad geographic coverage, and (v) reporting on the assessment and formulating recommendations. These issues are selected based on their particular relevance. Former and current projects address the following measurements:

  • education
  • household food consumption (food consumption are used for multiple purposes including poverty analysis, design of food fortification programs, assessment of food security, compilation of national accounts and consumer price indices, etc), gender, education, and more)
  • household non-food consumption
  • gender issues.

  
  

• Evaluating the use and relevance of household survey data for designing or assessing food fortification programs

• Evaluating the use and relevance of household survey data for compiling national accounts.

• Producing a survey quality assessment framework in the form of a log book for survey managers. This will provide a tool for survey managers to use during survey implementation and for ex-post assessment of surveys. This framework complements the sector-specific assessment frameworks mentioned earlier.