The DHS Program

United Nations OCHA, UN Country Team in Zambia
Lusaka, Zambia

...According to 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) more than 36 per cent of Zambia’s population lacked access to safe water and more than 67 per cent lacked access to basic sanitation. An estimated 10 per cent of the population practiced open defecation while 76 per cent of households did not have access to a hand washing facility...

Benazir Jatoi
The Express Tribune (PAKISTAN)

...What is the indirect impact of Covid-19 on Pakistan’s women? Though legal frameworks ensure equality, structurally there is still deep-rooted discrimination and a power imbalance between women and men.

According to the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-18, about 97% of women did not inherit land or house; 1% of women inherited agricultural land and a house; less than 1% inherited non-agricultural plots or residential plots; 6% have and use a bank account (while 32% of men do so); 39% of women own a mobile phone (93% of men do); 7% use their mobile phone for financial transactions (21% of men do); 34% said decisions regarding visits to family or relatives were mainly made by their husbands...

KumKum Dasgupta
Hindustan Times (India)

...The enumerators could find a designated place for washing hands in about 97% of households surveyed, but not all of them with adequate cleaning facilities. Water was not available in 14% of these households at the place where hands were washed. In urban areas, the share of such households was only 6% compared to 18% in rural areas. To be sure, among the households that had water, about 19% had no cleaning agent such as soap, ash, mud or sand...

Noha Elhennawy
ASSOCIATED PRESS (Cairo, Egypt)

"...a 2015 government survey found that 87% percent of all Egyptian women between 15 and 49 years of age have been circumcised..."

"According to the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), in 2008 DPT3/Penta3 vaccine coverage was 35%, increasing to 38% in 2013 and 50.1% in 2018."