Gains in Afghan Health: Too Good to Be True?

Featuring
Kenneth Hill
Professor of Global Health and Population
Harvard School of Public Health

With discussants
Pav Govindasamy
Regional Coordinator for Anglophone Africa and Asia
ICF International

Mohammad Hafiz Rasooly
Technical Advisor, Afghan Public Health Institute
Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan

Hosted by
Victoria Fan
Research Fellow
Center for Global Development

The results of the 2010 Afghanistan Mortality Survey were hailed as showing dramatic declines in child and maternal mortality when they first became available last year. Afghan surveyors in all 34 provinces brought back data suggesting that life expectancy at birth is now 62 years. Child mortality under age 5 dropped to 10 percent. Of 100,000 live births, the maternal mortality number was down to 327. However, more detailed examination of the results has raised questions about their accuracy. In this presentation, Kenneth Hill examines data quality indicators and issues of plausibility to try to establish what can, and what can’t, be believed from the survey.