Additional country selection criteria considered during study planning and rationale for final selection, as of 2018
| Region | Country | Inclusion decision | Rationale for inclusion decision | Selection method | Democracy index*16 |
| Asia and South East Asia | India | No | Greater policy impact than Indonesia; unable to conduct research in-country | Both | Flawed democracy |
| Indonesia | Potential Alternate | Less policy impact than India | CAGR | Flawed democracy | |
| Nepal | Yes | DTP3 gap closure and sustained high coverage | CAGR | Hybrid regimen | |
| Laos | Potential Alternate | Laos is an outlier in government type, so lessons will be less generalisable, signs of recent declines | Both | Authoritarian | |
| East/Southern Africa | Zimbabwe | Potential Alternate | Possible systematic issues in coverage; Anglophone language group | Both | Authoritarian |
| Burundi | No | Security concerns and access issues; Anglophone language group | Segment | Authoritarian | |
| Kenya | No | Higher trust in the data, more connections in country; Anglophone language group | Segment | Hybrid regimen | |
| Malawi | No | Small country, high coverage for a long period of time; Anglophone language group | Segment | Hybrid regimen | |
| Zambia | Yes | High DTP1 coverage maintained over the time period, closed gap between DTP1 and DTP3; Anglophone language group | Segment | Hybrid regimen | |
| West Africa | Senegal† | Yes | Best option given difference in DTP3 and measles; relatively flat/downward since 2010, but signs of recent improvement; Francophone language group | Segment | Flawed democracy |
| Burkina Faso | Potential Alternate | Relatively flat coverage—no change seen; Francophone language group | Both | Hybrid regimen | |
| Cameroon | No | Security concerns; Francophone language group | CAGR | Authoritarian | |
| Togo | Potential Alternate | Closing the gap between DTP1 and DTP3, but with slight declines in DTP1; Francophone language group | Both | Authoritarian |
*Terms from the Economist Democracy Index 2018, and briefly defined as follows: Flawed Democracies have free and fair elections, and basic civil liberties are respected even through problems and weaknesses in the system; hybrid regimens have elections with irregularities, contain weaknesses in the system and typically contain a weak civil society; Authoritarian Regimens do not have free and fair elections, if they occur at all, and infringe on civil liberties, along with repressing criticism and censoring dissenters.16
†As of the 2020 Democracy Index Report, Senegal is now considered a ‘Hybrid Regimen’.20
CAGR, compound annual growth rate; DTP, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis.