Guided by an international technical advisory panel of each topic’s leading experts, our research teams conduct a literature review, qualitative analysis, and quantitative analysis for all Exemplar countries.

Our literature reviews include peer-reviewed journal articles, published reports, impact evaluations, government and non-governmental organization (NGO) strategy and policy documents, and meeting presentations.

Our qualitative analysis includes dozens of in-person interviews with in-country experts who designed, implemented, or have deep first-hand knowledge of the most impactful policies and programs.

Our quantitative analysis includes publicly available health financing, coverage, and outcome data from Demographic and Health Surveys, resources made available to us by ministries of health and other government agencies, annual government reporting, and other globally recognized data collections from partners such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization.

All our research is carefully reviewed by local partners and the technical advisory panel before publication.

For the quantitative analyses, data are not always available or as robust as our methodology and our technical advisors dictate. In cases of missing or low-quality data, we rely on proxies whenever possible.

Time and distance limit our ability to conduct interviews in extremely remote locations, which limits the extent of the qualitative analysis. Sampling across multiple districts in Exemplar countries strengthens the quality of the content, but this is not always feasible.

We see this work as an addition to the robust global discourse on effective programming, not as the final word. We begin with four or five Exemplar counties due to limited resources, but believe that expanding to a broader set will allow for richer cross-country learning.