This post is part of a series commemorating 30 years of The DHS Program. By Fred Arnold Historically, India has suffered through devastating periods of famine, but due to the Green Revolution, improved food storage and distribution, and other factors, famine has been all but eradicated in the country. However, malnutrition continues to threaten the […]
This post is part of a series commemorating 30 years of The DHS Program. When I first started at The DHS Program in late 1993 as a Women-in-Development Specialist, the survey questionnaires contained few questions that could shed light on the impact of gender on demographic behavior and health. While the questionnaires were designed to […]
What does 30 years look like? Here are some historical milestones of The DHS Program:
This post is part of a series commemorating 30 years of The DHS Program. By Annie Cross The fact that Liberia is currently battling the Ebola crisis makes it harder to appreciate the fact that the recently released report on the 2013 Liberia Demographic and Health Survey (LDHS) showed improvement in most of the health-related […]
2014 marks the 30th anniversary for the USAID-funded Demographic and Health Surveys Program and my eleventh anniversary as Senior Advisor for Communication with the project. Much has changed over the past three decades: we’ve done many more surveys and much more complex surveys, added biomarkers, conducted more formal capacity building, and varied the kind of dissemination […]
By Peninah K. Masibo The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) curriculum is a course that builds the capacity of faculty and students in African universities to understand and use DHS surveys. The course covers a general introduction to the DHS, basic statistics and demographic health terms, indicators in the DHS, conducting a DHS, collecting data on HIV/AIDS and […]
By Clara Burgert The first DHS survey to use geographic location data was the 1996 Benin DHS. At that time, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day didn’t even exist (it was first started in 1999)! But over the years, we’ve collected location data in more and more surveys—over 120 to date. Our offerings in terms of […]
By Simon Peter Kibira In 2013, I was a member of a three-person team from Makerere University selected to participate in the DHS Fellows Program along with four other teams from African universities. The DHS Fellows program is designed to increase the capacity of countries to conduct further analysis of DHS data. Over the course […]
In my travels as a DHS sampling statistician, I have met countless people who want to hear about the sampling techniques and procedures we use in DHS surveys. Recognizing this fact, we are working to incorporate more sampling-related capacity strengthening activities at The DHS Program. The feedback we get after these activities has only encouraged […]
By James Kaphuka In July, I facilitated my fourth DHS Curriculum workshop. It was also the second time I had trained graduate students from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College. The DHS Curriculum Facilitator’s Guide is a comprehensive package of ready-made training materials about understanding and using Demographic and Health Survey reports. The curriculum is […]
Anthropometry measurement (height and weight) is a core component of DHS surveys that is used to generate indicators on nutritional status. The Biomarker Questionnaire now includes questions on clothing and hairstyle interference on measurements for both women and children for improved interpretation.