The SHARP+ standard survey consists of thirty-two modules, with twenty being mandatory for the resilience assessment and twelve optional. The optional modules provide flexibility, allowing users to tailor the questionnaire based on their specific context and project or programme’s objectives.

The SHARP+ questionnaire is built on a robust methodological framework to assess the resilience of smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It is based on key resilience indicators derived from Cabell and Oelofse’s (2012) agroecosystem resilience indicators framework, which identifies thirteen essential indicators that must be present within an agroecosystem to be fully resilient.

The questionnaire was specifically developed to capture data on these thirteen indicators, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of resilience at the household and farm levels. By incorporating these indicators, the tool enables a structured and systematic assessment of farmers' adaptive capacity, vulnerabilities, and aspects requiring targeted interventions.

For ease of use and interpretation of results, the SHARP+ questionnaire is organized into modules, rather than strictly following these thirteen indicators. A module is a set of questions focusing on one specific aspects of the farming system and household under study. Each module aims to collect two types of information through its questions:

1. Technical Component – Collects factual and external information about the household’s livelihood, farming, or pastoral system.
2. Self-Assessed Adequacy Component – Captures the respondent’s own perception of the resilience of specific aspects of their livelihood, farming, or pastoral system.

By integrating both objective (technical) and subjective (self-assessed) components, SHARP+ provides a comprehensive and integrated resilience assessment. Responses from both components are used to calculate the compound resilience score per module, allowing users to pinpoint the aspects strengthening or weakening the resilience of the agroecosystem under study

The last module of the SHARP+ survey covers the self-assessed importance component. This module gives respondents the opportunity to reflect on the different aspects covered and discussed through the assessment and prioritize those they consider as the most important to build resilience. Respondents can list the three most important aspects that require change according to them.