EnCompass is excited to continue partnering with ICF International to implement the newly awarded USAID Demographic and Health Surveys-9 Project (DHS-9). With this new activity, we will continue our 10+ years of partnership with ICF, which began in 2013 in support of DHS-7 and continued through DHS-8.  

Since 1984, The DHS Program has provided technical assistance for more than 450 demographic and health surveys in 90 countries. The program has a longstanding reputation for technical leadership in data collection, analysis, dissemination, and capacity strengthening. Under this activity, EnCompass is responsible for The DHS Program’s capacity-strengthening efforts at the local, national, and global levels. 

In DHS-7 and DHS-8, EnCompass led The DHS Program’s capacity-strengthening activities. We collaborated with survey-implementing agencies and the consortium partners to design and implement state-of-the-art interventions to increase country ownership of survey data and the process for data collection, analysis, dissemination, and use. In addition, we helped strengthen the capacity of academic researchers, journalists, ministries of health and government officials, and other local organizations to use survey data in support of their work and policy decision-making. 

In DHS-9, we will again serve as the lead partner for capacity-strengthening interventions. A new Global Capacity-Strengthening Strategy with a focus on localization will be developed to guide capacity-strengthening activities throughout DHS-9. We will expand individual and institutional capacity-strengthening planning and activities globally and in participating countries. This includes continued coordination of the South-to-South consultant certification program and the management of The DHS Program Learning Hub, which has transformed how participants engage with DHS-related learning. We will also help develop and coordinate innovative learning opportunities, including in-person training, online training, virtual instructor-led training, instructional videos, mentoring, coaching, etc. In addition, we will support gender integration efforts, including the development of the DHS gender strategy.  

In addition to EnCompass, the ICF-led consortium includes the existing DHS-8 partners – Avenir Health, Blue Raster, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), PATH, along with new partners -The African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP), IFORD (Institute of Demographic Training and Research), and JPD systems (small business for translation services). 

Selected EnCompass Achievements under DHS-7

• A Global Capacity-Strengthening Strategy to meet the needs of countries with varying capacity
• The DHS Capacity Assessment Tool to assist DHS implementing agencies in assessing their own capacity
• The first DHS online learning platform, enabling country counterparts to learn complex technical concepts from virtually anywhere, incrementally and at their own pace
• Virtual instructor-led training sessions
• More than 15 national and regional capacity-strengthening workshops annually
• Adult learning curricula, online training tools, and how-to resources

Photo c/o USAID via Creative Commons