Demographic and Health Surveys Program

Advancing global understanding of health and population trends in developing countries
©ICF, The DHS Program

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program has earned a worldwide reputation for collecting and disseminating accurate, nationally representative data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, gender, HIV/AIDS, malaria and nutrition in more than 90 countries around the world. Because of DHS, we know that only 26 percent of Ethiopian babies were delivered in a heath facility in 2016, that 29 percent of women in Burundi between the ages of 15 and 49 were tested for HIV in the past year and learned their results, that 45 percent of Armenian children in 2015 were exclusively breastfed. And knowing that information helps governments and NGOs understand a country’s health needs.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs leads DHS efforts to disseminate the results of the surveys, including hosting national seminars, writing key findings reports, fact sheets and press releases, and training journalists on how to use the data to tell stories about the health of their country. CCP also works with the DHS team to disseminate data via the DHS website, mobile application and social media.

Since the project began, CCP has:

  • Led the DHS team in the development of data use curricula, building host-country capacity to use DHS data to improve policies and programs
  • Created user-friendly publications to improve access to complex demographic and health data
  • Directed communication activities to expand the reach of DHS data through videos, social media, the DHS mobile app and web tools.
Funding

USAID

Location

Global

Duration

2018-2029

Implementing Partners

ICF (prime); Avenir Health, Blue Raster, EnCompass, PATH, the African Institute for Development Policy, and the Institut de Formation et de Recherche Demographiques

Category
Current, Family Planning, Gender, HIV and AIDS, Knowledge Management, Malaria