Qatar Supreme Council for Family Affairs Database of Social Indicators

The Qatar Supreme Council for Family Affairs (QSCFA) is charged with reviewing and proposing legislation, promoting policies, adopting plans, implementing projects and programs, enhancing the role of national institutions, and disseminating information related to all aspects of family affairs in Qatar. Its six operating departments carry out its goals, each focusing on a specific population in Qatar: families, women, children, youth, the elderly, and people with special needs. In support of its mission, the QSCFA is developing a social indicators database system that will provide essential information for assessing the well-being of families in Qatar, planning future activities, monitoring progress toward departmental goals, and setting policy priorities. This report, which presents the final results of an analysis by the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute, focuses on the following questions: What are the goals of the database system and how do they relate to the objectives of the QSCFA? What indicators are best suited to supporting the goals of the database system and how should they be measured? Are data available to compute the indicators? and What architecture will best support the database system? This centralized database will provide an efficient mechanism for supporting the activities of the QSCFA, will assist in coordinating work across departments with overlapping interests, and will have both short- and long-term benefits for the QSCFA’s mission.