The Quality of Health and Education Systems Across Africa
influence observed differences in results. Comparing the values for 2018 with those for 2012 shows that Kenya appears to have experienced an increase in caseload, absence rate, and availability of some infrastructure. Although the two survey rounds used very similar instruments, methodological improvements and differences in the nature of the samples led to differences in how sampling weights are applied in calculations using data from the two rounds. Because of these factors, differences between the 2012 and 2018 values, particularly for indicators that use provider-level disaggregated data, may reflect differences in weighting schemes rather than true underlying changes.8 The challenges in generating comparable results between the two surveys underscore the tradeoff between constantly improving the survey and its methods and ensuring that policy-relevant changes over time can still be examined. In the future, SDI methods will increasingly emphasize gathering and retaining details on survey sampling frames, which can help analysts to adjust for sampling differences and improve comparability.
Results in action: How SDI surveys inform program operations In a decade of implementation, the SDI surveys have had a significant impact in countries. The surveys serve multiple purposes for policy makers and program implementers. They can help to provide insight into aspects of service delivery that are typically not well measured. For known health or education challenges, they can help to diagnose root causes. From an operations standpoint, they can help governments and the World Bank to measure the success of projects over time. Finally, they can help to raise awareness of the quality of service provision and thereby stoke demand to implement changes. Ideally, an SDI survey will do all of the above, but a few examples are useful to show how each of these changes has happened in the real world. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a 2019 education survey is providing an understanding of several aspects of service delivery quality, including infrastructure, learning materials, teacher practices, student learning, and sector governance. Most of these indicators are not yet captured by the country’s nascent education management information system, and the SDI data allow government oversight in areas with otherwise little to no information. As a result, the SDI survey has informed and strengthened a World Bank operation. Several measures from the SDI survey are being used as indicators for the Education Quality Improvement Project (EQUIP), whose objectives are to strengthen the quality of learning conditions in primary schools
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