Interdisciplinary Data Gathering and Analysis

Our program for gathering and analyzing public opinion is a vital component of SAFI. We adopt a multi-thematic and interdisciplinary approach to data collection and policy analysis, organized into analysis labs each directed by experts.

Our program for gathering and analyzing public opinion is a vital component of SAFI. We adopt a multi-thematic and interdisciplinary approach to data collection and policy analysis, on the understanding that the questions facing South Asia rarely sit inside a single discipline.

This program is organized into various analysis labs, each directed by experts. Our focus areas include regional security, democracy, election, governance, peace, refugee issues, environmental policy, and education. Labs share instruments, sampling frames, and quality standards, so findings can be read across themes and across borders.

Survey design, fieldwork protocols, and weighting decisions are documented and published alongside results. Where data collection is constrained — by access, security, or capacity — we say so plainly rather than presenting an incomplete picture as a settled one.

What this program produces

• Multi-country public opinion polling with published methodology
• Thematic analysis labs directed by subject experts
• Comparative datasets across the nine nations and the diaspora
• Data partnerships and resource exchange with global institutions

To inform, engage, and equip policymakers in South Asia by addressing gaps in foreign and public policy through analysis, opinion research, and foster informed public discourse, focused on locally driven solutions and free from any regional dominance.

Who this program is for

SAFI’s targeted groups include, but are not limited to, youth, scholars, students, experts, academics, vulnerable populations, refugees, immigrants, and practitioners. Outputs from this program are written to be useful to each of them — not only to specialists.