On Thursday, February 29, AA/GH Atul Gawande hosted Robert Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, for a fireside chat to commemorate the 70-year partnership between both agencies, implemented through an Interagency Agreement (IAA). More than 750 people attended virtually and in-person; a recording of the conversation is also available.
Through the IAA, both agencies have partnered in 90 countries to make 130 censuses easier and more accurate, including through software development to enumerate data for more than 800 million people in the 2020 global Census round alone. Notably, technical assistance provided by Census with USAID support over a few Census rounds, has elevated Kenya’s national statistical organization as a regional leader offering assistance to other countries, a demonstration of localization success.
Many other surveys, including the USAID-funded Demographic and Health Surveys, leverage census data. Foundational census data have been used to guide humanitarian response efforts, and are used to inform every program area in the Bureau for Global Health. During the fireside chat, AA Gawande discussed how valuable Census data can be to understanding severity and mode of transmission in disease outbreaks, such as mpox, by understanding mortality rates relative to the total population.
Looking to the future, AA Gawande and Director Santos discussed ways to combine geospatial data with topographic, demographic, and socioeconomic data, to help countries pinpoint areas vulnerable to natural disasters and inform public health, humanitarian response, and infrastructure planning. Director Santos also pointed to a near future where AI, machine learning, and satellite imagery could facilitate better data collection for hard to reach nomadic or tribal communities.
Of note was Dr. Santos’ response when asked whether data saves lives. “People save lives. What people do with data saves lives …you absolutely need the data, but I’m focused on people and making sure that they use it well.”
The interagency agreement is managed by the Office of Population and Reproductive Health, in USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. It is open to buy-ins from all USAID entities, not limited to health.
For more information about the interagency agreement, please contact Apoorva Jadhav (ajadhav@usaid.gov).