The first official meeting of the group was held on 29 May 2015. The managers of the three programmes met at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., the home of LSMS. The agenda items ranged from information sharing with the goal of facilitating coordination to discussions on collaboration and harmonization across both new methodological work and existing tools. There was a presentation of the MICS Programme’s piloting of Water Quality Testing, which is now under finalisation for inclusion into the MICS Programme as a standard component available in MICS6 rolling out in 2016. The group agreed to meet virtually on several individual topics, to share information over email -- including a combined country-by-country listing of survey plans -- and to continue with occasional face-to-face meetings twice a year or as appropriate.
Below is an announcement outlining the rationale and objectives of the collaboration.