Benstat Incorporated

One important goal of StatAid is the achievement of statistical literacy across NGOs.  To that end, this Program both provides mentoring and training in quantitative and statistical literacy to the NGO community and also allows in-house internships for local high school and college students.

Although many advocacy efforts and public policy decisions are based on good statistics and other quantitative information, there are many challenges to using quantitative information effectively in the human rights and humanitarian contexts.  A good example of this issue is best methods for casuality estimation during or directly after complex humanitarian emergencies.  The controversy surrounding the Lancet Studies related to excess mortality in Iraq was, in part, due to mixed professional opinion on the use of 30X30 cluster survey methods for mortality estimation.  Another related but less known issue is the maintenance of conceptual and functional equivalence of survey instruments across different languages and cultures.  Within the Data Collection and Analysis Research Program, StatAid staff explore these issues, developing best practices for collection and analysis of data related to human rights or humanitarian concerns.