In this activity, you will select a health situation in a specific country and use situational analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and barriers to change the health situation.

Step 1. Explore

Explore this country profile health metric and evaluation website: https://www.healthdata.org/results/country-profiles. Select one country of interest in the dropdown menu under the heading COUNTRY PROFILES. Keep in mind that you will continue working with the same country in the next lesson. 

Step 2. Study

Study the health metric data of the chosen country. Focus on the following areas:

• Life expectancy, mortality, morbidity
• Causes of mortality, morbidity, and disability
• Risk factors
• More data (optional)

Step 3.  Select and Assess

From the health data of the country, select one health issue, problem or behavior that spans across a range of cultural, economic, and health environments that you want to address. Then conduct a brief situational analysis. The situational analysis must answer the following questions:

• What is the current health situation here that demands an intervention? (Understand the broad context)
• What are potential challenges within the country?
• What is the country’s capacity to address this problem? Consider different cultural, economic, and health environments.
• What are the best ways to reach priority groups associated with the current health situation?

Step 4. Conduct

Conduct a situational analysis by presenting your findings using this framework: