Guidance on indicator selection for health policy-making

Overview

Carefully constructed indicator sets are important tools to support evidence-informed health policy-making. When developing an indicator set, different aspects need to be considered, such as the characteristics of different types of indicators, purpose and scope of the monitoring exercise, availability of data sources and associated limitations, and criteria such as validity, reliability and actionability of selected indicators. This publication provides practical guidance in the form of a stepwise approach for selecting a policy-relevant indicator set. In addition, it includes an overview of different types of indicators and their pros and cons, tips and tricks for using artificial intelligence in indicator selection and related monitoring work, and a deep dive section on composite indicators, including practical examples from countries.