The Quality of Health and Education Systems Across Africa

Appendix C: Survey methodology The Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) initiative aims to provide national and subnational evidence on the quality of primary education and basic health service delivery from the perspective of an average citizen accessing these services. To do so, SDI survey instruments are structured meticulously to collect information on three aspects of service delivery: (1) provider effort, (2) provider knowledge, and (3) facility inputs. Provider effort is measured by collecting data on teachers’ and health workers’ absenteeism rates, health care providers’ caseloads, and teachers’ time spent in teaching activities.

Provider knowledge is measured by collecting data on teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum and quality of their pedagogy as well as health workers’ diagnostic and treatment accuracy, adherence to clinical guidelines, and management of maternal and neonatal complications. Facility inputs are measured by observing each facility’s equipment and infrastructure availability, each health facility’s medicine availability, and each school’s student-to-textbook and student-to-teacher ratios.

Survey teams visit schools and health facilities to collect data through a combination of observation and interview techniques.1 SDI survey instruments are nimble and use cutting-edge data collection methods, allowing for relatively 139