The collection of the United Nations Handbooks on Household Surveys has been an essential tool to guide national statistical offices in planning and implementing household surveys and in making effective use of the data collected. Prepared by the UN Statistical Office (now called Statistics Division, UNSD), this series has been published between the 1980s and the early 2000s. Meanwhile, the landscape of data collection and survey methodologies has evolved considerably, including the availability of administrative, geospatial, mobile phone positioning, and citizen-generated data.

To respond more effectively to this changing scenario and increase development policy and research impact in the remaining years under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the USND launched the revision of the UN Handbooks on Household Surveys. The revision was mandated by the UN Statistical Commission at its 55th session in 2024 (decision 55/117) and is overseen by the Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS).

In collaboration with the ISWGHS, EGRISS is engaging in this process to ensure that issues relevant to the collection of data on refugees, IDPs and stateless persons are appropriately covered in the updated documents, building on content from the IRRS, IRIS, IROSS, and Compilers’ Manual as well as experience of our members. This includes facilitating a consultation with the membership in August and September 2024 and continuous engagement in next steps. The new Handbook is expected to be out by December 2026.