In an effort to revamp the time-intensive process of conducting household surveys to collect health data in developing countries, a new project is using mobile phones and rapid processing techniques to generate regular updates for a tranche of indicators previously only adjusted every three to five years.
The Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 project (PMA2020) is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and conducts surveys in seven countries so far to estimate and track a number of development indicators at the household level. The surveys, updated every 6 to 12 months, focus on access to and use of family planning and water and sanitation data, with additional program areas and three countries to be added later.