For two intensive weeks, the future of health and development in Ethiopia was being shaped, not in clinics or classrooms, but around tables covered in data. The Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) Report Writing Workshop marked a critical milestone in translating vast amounts of survey data into a clear narrative that will guide national policies and programs for years to come.

This work is central to the mandate of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, whose global mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

What the Workshop Achieved

The workshop focused on drafting chapters for the 5th EDHS Final Report. The EDHS is conducted as part of The DHS Program and is the latest iteration in a crucial series of national surveys, the primary objective of which is to provide up-to-date estimates of basic demographic and health indicators.

Translating Data into Insight

The key achievement was moving from raw statistics to actionable findings. Authors, guided by writing principles, focused on extracting and communicating the most meaningful patterns and trends in the data.

• Chapter Drafting: Participants utilized standard templates to write the main chapter text, incorporating trends and selecting 3-4 key background characteristics to feature, ensuring a focus on national rates and trends from sources like STAT compiler.

• Visualizing the Story: They selected and verified over 70 charts and 15+ maps using figure templates, specifying visualization types (e.g., line graph for trends, maps for subnational disaggregation) and ensuring consistency in titles and data.

• Highlighting Key Takeaways: A "Key Findings" summary box of 4-5 main takeaways was drafted for the beginning of each chapter after the main text was complete, summarizing the most important insights.

• Ensuring Data Quality in Reporting: Strict reporting rules were followed to ensure data reliability and transparency, including:

  • Using weighted numbers for representative results, as the overall selection probability is not constant across all households.

  • Avoiding discussion of results in parentheses (based on 25-49 unweighted cases) or those marked with an asterisk (fewer than 25 unweighted cases), as these indicate that the data quality may be questionable or too small to be reliable.

The Importance of the EDHS

The EDHS provides the evidence needed to see who is being reached and who is being left behind, a core principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UNFPA's work.

Informing National Policy and Programs

The survey is specifically designed to provide estimates at the national level, for urban and rural areas, and for Ethiopia’s 12 regions and 2 city administrations. The robust methodology ensures this data is reliable:

• Scope: The survey selected 28 households per cluster from 805 enumeration areas (22,540 households total), ensuring coverage in both urban (281 EAs) and rural areas (524 EAs).

• Representativeness: The design uses probability sampling (ensuring every household/individual has a known, non-zero chance of selection) and stratification (dividing the population into subgroups to ensure representation).

• Accuracy: Weighting is a critical step, adjusting the data to compensate for unequal selection probabilities and non-response, which ensures the survey accurately represents the entire population.

The resulting high-quality, disaggregated data is the foundation for evidence-based decision-making.

Alignment with the UNFPA Mandate and Vision

The findings from the EDHS are directly linked to the three transformative results at the core of UNFPA's global mission to be achieved by 2030:

1. Ending unmet need for family planning.

2. Ending preventable maternal deaths.

3. Ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.

The EDHS provides crucial indicators on contraceptive prevalence, maternal health care utilization (like ANC visits), fertility rates, and child mortality. By highlighting differentials, differences in indicator values between subgroups like wealth quintiles or regions, the EDHS report directs UNFPA and its partners to "reach the furthest behind first".

The data, for example, allows policymakers to pinpoint which regions have the highest unmet need for family planning, or where maternal health services are least utilized. This evidence-based approach strengthens national capacity for using data to monitor and evaluate policies, ensuring that resources are strategically deployed to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights and empower women, girls, and young people.