The IHSN Question Bank
The IHSN Question Bank is intended to serve as a central web-based repository of guidelines for the design of survey questionnaires. The guidelines included in the Question Bank are those provided by international or specialized agencies involved in the design of survey instruments.
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Many of these guidelines are based on extensive expertise and experience, and have gone through gognitive testing or other piloting processes. It is important to note however that they do not necessarily provide a "ready to use" solution for the design of survey instruments. Survey instruments must be adapted to the specific context in which they will be implemented and to the particular objectives of the data collection. Further, the guidelines provided by international or regional agencies have not always been developed with a concern for harmonization. Therefore, the IHSN Question Bank may include "competing" guidelines. The user is invited to review and consider that various options provided, and to make informed choice for the design of their own instruments.
The IHSN Question Bank is not only a repository of survey questions. It is also a repository of indicators and conceppts definitions, and classifications.
The main sources of information used to populate the IHSN Question Bank are:
- The World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) manuals
- UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Clusters Survey (MICS) questionnaires and manuals
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The IHSN Question Bank was developed by the IHSN and the World Bank. A specific XML schema was designed to organized the information contained in the database. This schema builds on the DDI and SDMX metadata standards. A software application was developed to administer and publish the information. This application will be published as open source software. It may be of interest to statistical or other agencies interested in maintaining and publishing information on their own data collection standards.