Located in the Eastern Hararghe, Ethiopia

Hararghe Health and demographic surveillance system(HDSS) is the largest HDSS in Africa that operate in three different sites namely: Harar(urban site), Kersa(semi-urban & rural site), and Haramaya(rural site). A total of 48 kebeles(small administrative unit in Ethiopia) surveil more than 60,000 households and 320,000 individuals. The HDSS is an open dynamic cohort continuously collect data on vital events (marital status, birth, death, and migration), demographic change, housing condition, epidemiological transition, pregnancy observation, child immunization, family planning, morbidity, cause of death among others. It aims to generate quality data, enhance analytic and modelling capacity, and generate evidence for informed decision for better health outcome in Ethiopia and beyond.

HDSS site play a critical role in collecting longitudinal data on health and demographic change with specific population. This continuous surveillance system makes it possible to easily and clearly define risks of demographic and health events for individuals over time; it provides a cause-specific mortality and morbidity profile that is demographically or geographically stratified, permitting rational resource allocation to priority diseases in defined target groups. The longitudinal morbidity and mortality data generated from the HDSS also can help generate hypotheses on the causes of death in the population and evaluate the impact of public health interventions. In addition, it can provide important community-based health information to stakeholders in public health decision making to choose efficient and effective policy alternatives to intervene on health problems and evaluation of programs in resource-limited settings.