Household surveys remain indispensable tools for generating representative and comprehensive insights on living conditions, livelihoods, and well-being in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), at a time when AI, machine learning, and expanding alternative data sources are reshaping what is possible in measurement and data collection. Yet there is persistent room to improve the quality, timeliness, and policy relevance of surveys, and technology is creating new opportunities to do so at lower cost and greater scale.

Better survey methods can address such criticisms of surveys and guide more effective policies and interventions. At the same time, translating methodological innovation into operational practice, rigorously tested and scaled in LMIC contexts, remains a central challenge facing the survey methods community.

Against this background, the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) — the World Bank Group's flagship household survey program — in collaboration with the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) at Northwestern University, is pleased to invite submissions for the second edition of the conference Better Data for Better Lives: Innovations in Survey Measurement in the Age of AI. The conference – in person and livestreamed - is supported by the World Bank Group Community of Practice on Surveys and Measurement and the World Bank Data Academy and will be held in Washington D.C.

About the Conference

Building on the success of the inaugural conference in December 2025, this edition will bring together researchers from academia, think tanks, and international organizations to share and discuss recent advances in the design, implementation, and analysis of household surveys and measurement tools in LMICs. The goal is to strengthen the link between frontier research on survey methods and the needs of survey implementers, development practitioners, and the broader data user community.

The program will showcase research of varying maturity, completed papers as well as early-stage methodological research, along with invited sessions on strategic priorities and transformative ideas in survey methods and measurement.

We welcome submissions of full working papers or extended abstracts for work in progress presenting innovations, challenges, or empirical findings related to the design, implementation, or analysis of surveys and measurement.

Relevant topics span the full range of innovations in survey methods and measurement, including: questionnaire design and testing, survey operations, sampling and weighting, survey mode, interviewer behavior, data quality assessment, data harmonization, integration of new and alternative data sources, and meta-analysis.

The conference welcomes submissions on any development outcome, including but not limited to: Health, Nutrition, Population; Care Work, Women’s Empowerment; Education, Skills, Human Capital; Labor, Employment, Informality; Food Security, Agriculture, Rural Livelihoods; Energy; WASH; Welfare; Fragility, Conflict, Violence; Climate Shocks and, Resilience; Migration. The common thread is a commitment to improving the quality, efficiency, and/or relevance of measurement in development contexts.

The application of AI and machine learning to survey measurement continues to be an area of special interest, building on the rich discussions from the inaugural conference. We invite submissions that develop, test, or critically evaluate AI-enabled approaches across any stage of the survey process. This includes work on the responsible use of AI in survey contexts and the critical role of high-quality survey data as ground truth for training and validating AI systems.

Across all submissions, authors are encouraged to reflect on data quality, cost-effectiveness, and the potential for scaling the methods discussed, including how technology can help generate high-quality evidence at lower cost. Applications focused on the measurement of outcomes for women and youth are especially welcome.

  • Send your extended abstract (max. 800 words) or full working draft by October 15, 2026 using this link.

  • Indicate whether you would like to include your paper in a full paper session or a shorter work-in-progress session.

If you have  any questions, please contact surveymethods@worldbank.org. Register HERE to participate, in person or online.