1.15 million children, 122,472 communities, 57 countries, 30 years: new dataset combines demographic health surveys with geographic information systems

BY ZHE GUO, WAHID QUABILI, LIANGZHI YOU AND DEREK HEADEY

Research on the linkages between agriculture, nutrition, and health is hugely hindered by a lack of data: Health and nutrition surveys generally contain little information on agriculture, and agricultural surveys little information on health or nutrition. Yet we know that there are hugely important connections between these different domains, as well as with related issues like climate, infrastructure, and various ecological conditions.

To close these data gaps, the Advancing Research on Nutrition and Agriculture (ARENA) project—funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the IFPRI-led CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)—constructed a large multi-level, multi-country dataset combining individual and household level nutrition, health, and socioeconomic data from the Demographic Health Surveys with a wide variety of community-level geographic information systems (GIS) data on agricultural production, agroecology, climate, demography, and infrastructure.

Photo credit: Joanna Lowell/DHS Program