During a humanitarian crisis a large number of assessments and surveys are carried out, often in support of project design as well as monitoring and evaluation. These activities are as diverse as IDP registration, nutrition assessments, demining surveys, etc.

The Survey of Surveys is an inventory of surveys and assessments that enables information to be shared widely and stored for future reference.  As with the Who does What Where, the Survey of Surveys is an ongoing process and can form the basis of a comprehensive data repository for the humanitarian community and aid coordination in the following ways: 

• It creates a shared understanding of the situation regarding data collection in the field
• It identifies assessments or surveys that might feed into each other, and organizations that may find it useful to collaborate
• It identifies potential duplications or gaps in survey work that may need to be addressed
• It identifies which organizations should be supported to ensure that the data collected is useful and shareable
• It provides an initial overview of which organizations are working or are planning to work in specific areas or specific sectors
• It creates a database of what survey work has been done as a guide for planning survey work in the future
• It gives an indication of what reports and/or datasets will be produced by the humanitarian community in the near future.