Scientific Research has been and will remain the primary activity of INDEPTH member HDSSs and INDEPTH as a whole in the next decade.
We perform research to quantify and understand the complex demographic and health transitions in low- and middle-income country settings.
We do this through longitudinal population-based demographic, epidemiological and cause-of-death data; and discover what works, for whom and at what cost by conducting intervention research and impact evaluations.
Over the last decade, the commitment and ability of INDEPTH members to make their data available for comparative studies has strengthened considerably. This has been demonstrated by a majority of the HDSSs making comparable individual-level data on mortality and cause-specific mortality available for analyses.
INDEPTH campaigns and works for fuller exploitation of members’ data, but we do not impose specific research topics on members. At the same time, regional or global priorities are highlighted and supported.
While not all research conducted by the members requires population-based longitudinal data, it does benefit from the established core infrastructure including long-standing relationships with countries. This argument is always carefully made to encourage funders for all projects funded through the INDEPTH Secretariat to contribute to the HDSS overhead funding.
We co-ordinate:
