Activities

Proposed by the Secretariat and approved by the Management Group, the IHSN program of activities includes:

• Improvement of data collection methods and practices through assessment and improvement of survey methods and programs. The IHSN facilitates the work of experts and specialized task forces who produce guidelines and reference materials. The IHSN also develops and maintains a Question Bank, a central repository of international survey guidelines, definitions of related concepts and indicators, interviewer instructions, and classifications.
• Development and maintenance of tools and guidelines to help data producers improve the documentation, preservation, anonymization, cataloguing, dissemination, and archiving of survey and census microdata.
• Maintenance of survey and census catalogs to inform data users about the existence of data. The IHSN does not distribute microdata, but helps make these data more accessible by providing data documentation, cataloguing, and dissemination tools and recommendations to agencies that own such data.

For more information on how these activities support our work program, visit our Projects page.
The IHSN does not provide technical or financial support, but coordinates its activities with the Accelerated Data Program (ADP), which supports the implementation of international best practices of survey design and data archiving in developing countries.