Digitalization and Resilience to COVID-19 Shocks: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
Ookla Digital DevelopmentChallenge The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major disruption to economic activities and human welfare across the world. Despite the pandemic’s late arrival, Sub-Saharan African countries were faced with unprecedented challenges to contain the spread of the pandemic and mitigate the damage to the economy.
Facebook’s Covid-19 Trends and Impact Survey
Facebook COVID-19With as many as 8 vaccines approved for use around the world the most urgent need now to control the spread of the novel coronavirus is increasing vaccination rates.
Unlocking Mobility: TapTap Maps in Cap-Haïtien
WhereIsMyTransport TransportationChallenge Haitian cities suffer from poor transportation services, and the lack of data from existing services limits improvement efforts. Tap Taps are the most popular motorized transportation mode employed across Haiti, yet there is not enough data on them as they are informal, private, and marginally regulated.
Improving public space and market design during COVID-19
Veraset COVID19Lima’s Central Market has always been one of the busiest and liveliest in Lima, Peru. Before the pandemic, some hundreds of people gathered there to buy and sell groceries, clothes, electronics–you name it.
The IMF's New Climate Change Indicators Dashboard: Experimental Data for Economic and Financial Analysis
ESRI Climate ChangeTo develop the right measures to tackle climate change, governments need robust and comparable data. The new IMF Dashboard will help fill data gaps, so policymakers can undertake the macroeconomic and financial analysis that underpins effective policies
Mapping entrepreneurs' response to COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean
ESRIChallenge: The social and economic disruption caused by Covid-19 led to numerous challenges to conduct businesses, provide essential services, and attend to the most basic well-being needs around the globe.
The Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown Measures on Internet Speed
Ookla COVID19COVID-19 and the related lockdown measures to prevent the virus’ spread have highlighted how important it is for everyone to have access to reliable and resilient digital infrastructure.
Examining the Economic Impact of COVID-19 in India through Daily Electricity Consumption and Nighttime Light Intensity
Facebook COVID19Challenge: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. When COVID-19 started to spread in India through domestic contagion, the authorities enacted a series of measures to combat the pandemic, including a strict national lockdown from March 25 to May 4 that strongly disrupted economic activity.
Optimizing Tourism Investments: Identifying Chokepoints and Underperforming Minor Roads in Sri Lanka
MapboxChallenge: Connected and maintained transportation infrastructure are critical to sustainable economic development, but most current estimation methods of road quality are labor, time, and cost intensive.
Examining the Economic Impact of India’s Zone Classification to contain COVID-19
Facebook COVID19Challenge: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted economic activity in India. When COVID-19 started to spread in India through domestic contagion, the Indian authorities enacted a series of measures to combat the pandemic, including a strict national lockdown from March 25 to May 4.
Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 in Indonesia
Premise PovertyChallenge: Although there is a widespread awareness of the pandemic, there is a lack of understanding from citizens’ perspective, especially behaviors it triggers, sentiments towards government as well as rising concerns.
A Light Primer to Spark / Databricks
TutorialDatabricks is a powerful platform for using Spark, a powerful data technology. If you’re reading this, you’re likely a Python or R developer who begins their Spark journey to process large datasets.
Estimating High-speed Broadband Coverage in Ukraine
OoklaChallenge: Ukraine, Europe’s biggest country, has over 1,192 operators and providers, of which close to three quarters operate under a special preferential tax regime, allowing them not to report their coverage/subscription data to the national telecom regulatory authority.
2020 Inspire Challenge Finalist - The ClimaCell Locust Project
Tomorrow Climate Change FoodAg Observatory in collaboration with the World Bank Data Lab guided and facilitated Climacell’s entry into the CGIAR Big Data Inspire Challenge 2020.
Economic Anxiety and COVID-19 in Southeast Asia
GoogleChallenge: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy through lockdowns, disrupted supply chains and uncertain economic outlooks. Swift reaction by policy makers are required to prevent a deep recession.
Analyzing Spatial Accessibility of Health Facilities in Indonesia and Philippines
Facebook MapboxChallenge: Indonesia and the Philippines are archipelagos, where geographic and administrative boundaries are similar. The collection of islands is home to different concentrations of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic groups, with an imbalanced distribution of health facilities and physicians.
Mapbox Releases a New Movement Dataset for Mobility Insights
Announcement MapboxFollowing the Development Data Partnership launch event at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings, Mapbox announced a new dataset on movement data for mobility insights.
Data Partnership: Bridging the Data Gap for Public Good
AnnouncementDownload Event Program High frequency, timely, and granular information – which is routinely collected by the private sector–can help inform public policy and service delivery.
Tackling COVID-19 Second Wave using Facebook Mobility Data in Vietnam
Facebook COVID19Challenge: On July 24, after 99 days of zero community-transmitted COVID-19 infections, a 57 year-old man tested positive in Danang, a major city in central Vietnam with close to 1.
Assessing Social Inequality and Lockdown Policies using Mobile Location Data in Indonesia
CuebiqChallenge: Lockdown policies such as stay-at-home orders and non-essential business closures are central to fighting the novel coronavirus. However, policy makers are having a hard time answering key questions about their efficacy.
Introducing the Data Partnership on GitHub
AnnouncementAfter launching in 2019, when the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund joined the initiave, the Development Data Partnership has scaled up fast, with more than 100 projects having been brought to life supported by partnerships with more than 20 companies.
Leveraging New Data Methods to Address an Ancient Challenge: Locusts
TomorrowChallenge: The worst locust upsurge in at least 25 years is hitting parts of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Western Asia, and over 40 million people who are already food insecure find their food supply and livelihoods threatened.
How to Find Population Movement Data for Your Country: The Mobile Location Data Inventory
Facebook Veraset Unacast Cuebiq X-ModeAs the COVID-19 pandemic continues, so have measures to mitigate its spread. Physical distancing and movement restrictions – such as school and workplace closures, public event cancellations, stay-at-home orders, and international and domestic travel bans – vary considerably across countries.
Google, Apple, and Facebook: Understanding Mobility during Social Distancing with Private Sector Data
Facebook GoogleAs countries around the world work to contain the spread and impact of COVID-19, the World Bank Group is moving quickly to provide fast, flexible responses to help developing countries strengthen their pandemic response and health care systems.
Addressing COVID-19 through Public-Private Data Partnerships: Where Do We Put New Testing Facilities?
Facebook MapboxBackground As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, the World Bank is ramping up its response to help countries around the world. The Bank recently announced $14 billion emergency support program, for which a key pillar is to help countries strengthen their capacity to monitor and respond to the spread of the virus.
A New Predictive Model for More Accurate Electrical Grid Mapping
FacebookChallenge: When planning connectivity deployments in emerging markets, it is important to have a clear picture of where existing power lines are placed.
Estimating Access to Employment Opportunities in Dhaka, Bangladesh
MapboxChallenge: Poor transport facilities and infrastructure are a major hindrance to Bangladesh’s economic development. The road network in Dhaka is severely congested.
Tackling the Global Profitarchy–Gender and the Choice of Business Sector
Facebook Gender EqualityChallenge: Despite significant progress in women’s educational attainment and higher female labor force participation rates in many countries, progress in closing the gender pay gap, which takes the ratio of median earnings of all women to all men, has been slow.
Improving Road Safety in Nairobi
WazeChallenge: Kenya has one of the highest estimated crash fatality rates worldwide but is challenged to address the problem without adequate data.
On Responsible Data Use
As we develop the Data Partnership, we have a responsibility to the people impacted by our initiative – to local governments and partners, and to our own organizations – to think about how we are collecting, using, storing, and sharing information.
Mapping Freetown Transit for Resiliency
WhereIsMyTransportChallenge: The resiliency of a transport network is a critical component to the stability and prosperity of a city. Freetown, prone to flooding and landslides, struggles to maintain services throughout the year.
Why Data Partnership?
Should the private sector ever share data with the public sector, even if for public good? Well, it depends. Most of us are in agreement that when companies collect our data as a natural by-product of providing a service – like our movement data or spending patterns – the company shouldn’t sell these data to a third party for profit, especially without transparency.
Data Partner Lightning Talks
On February 13, 2019, the Data Partnership (formerly Data Collaboratives), for the first time, brought together Partners and staff. More than 200 colleagues joined the standing-room-only event, in person and online, learning about how private data partnerships can be made to work for public good.