Project Title: Implementation of World Health Survey Plus (WHS+)

Aims and objectives of the project: The project purpose is to generate valid, reliable, comparable and timely information on a range of health and well-being outcomes and determinants of public health importance in nationally representative target populations. The results from the WHS+ will support WHO Member States to track progress on country-specific objectives and towards UHC and HR-SDG targets and the WHO’s Member State-approved Impact Framework.

Primary objectives of the project:

  1. Create a robust multi-functional data collection platform for generating data to monitor progress on national priorities, HR-SDGs and UHC.
  2. Support countries to generate analysis and use high-quality data to fill data gaps.
  3. Develop standardized, computerized data collection strategies that enable speedier data collection and more reliable comparison across countries.

Additional objectives of the project:

  1. Develop capacities in using evidence for policy
  2. Institutionalize a regular data generation platform in countries
  3. Provide tools and methods for better sequencing and coordination between studies
  4. Pursue improvements in integrating survey data into health information systems
  5. Provide methods for the inclusion of neglected topics and population groups
  6. Build on post-census surveys with up to date sample frames.
  7. Introduce a suit of data collection and analysis tools to use alongside National Statistics Offices and the United Nations Statistics Division.

Project Summary: It is necessary to accomplish the Health Related Sustainable Development Goals (HR-SDGs), including universal health coverage (UHC). The global health community is debating this issue, which is spurring the development of numerous new estimates to monitor advancement using more intricate analytical methods. The underlying input data that these modelled estimations are based on still has significant limitations and is subject to quality uncertainty. There is a lack of empirical data that can be used to support the complex modeling needed or to guide national policy.

The WHS+ aims to produce accurate, reliable, comparable, and timely data on a variety of public health-relevant health and well-being outcomes and determinants among nationally representative target populations. In order to adequately account for the variations in health outcomes, the WHS+ will gather information on the factors that affect health outcomes, such as social determinants and household economic status. In order to better understand the connection between health and well-being, the WHS+ will also gather information on subjective well-being. The WHS+ will gather this information through an omnibus survey in order to examine the connections among the members of the sample and household to offer insights that would not otherwise be possible.

Interviews will be conducted with a sample of 6000 households and people. Moreover, anthropometric and biomarker data will be gathered from people. All participants will be asked for their informed consent.

Result: The results are disseminated in technical reports, academic papers and through monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the HR SDGs and the WHO Impact Framework. Participating countries are encouraged to develop policy briefs and share research findings with relevant policy makers. The WHS+ micro-data, which is made publicly available, is anonymized, with provisions to ensure the data cannot be linked to individual respondents for analysts interested in cross-country comparisons.

Duration: 20 February 2023 to 20 August 2023

Project Scope: National

Donor: HelpAge International

Budget: 24,060,182/-