In this evelopment Data Partnership event, participants learn how IDB, UNICEF, and the WHO are using ESRI GIS technology to supporting COVID-19 response and recovery.

Through the Development Data Partnership, World Bank staff have free access to Twitter’s Enterprise API platform, which offers real-time and historical social data. During this workshop, Twitter staff helped staff get started.

Learn how the team used geospatial data to improve the delivery of social assistance programs in Tunisia. The event is jointly organized by Social Protection & Jobs Global Practice, ITS Technology and Innovation Lab, and the WB Data Lab as part of the LearnDTech Initiative.

Meet our summer intern Afeefah Khazi-Syed, biological engineering major at MIT, as she presents her research on analyzing physical access to health facilities. She hopes her work can inform decisions on how to allocate scarce resources towards placement of mobile health services. Afeefah’s work, which includes open-source code that Bank staff can use to replicate her results, utilizes data from Facebook and MapBox, acquired through the Development Data Partnership (datapartnership.org).

The Development Data Partnership has partnered with four mobility data providers to acquire smartphone GPS data across many emerging economies. These data have applications for understanding population movement during the pandemic, supporting client advisory on topics such as social distancing measures, placement of mobilie testing facilities, and estimating economic activity. At the workshop, participants learned about these data providers, the data transformations undertaken by the Partnership team to make analytics easier, the data documentation system, and recent work on COVID-19 indicators.

A Social Development GP team used alternative data (Twitter, Instagram, news media, Facebook, Google, Premise, etc.) to boost their COVID-19 social impact monitoring. Their work helped rapidly inform decision makers and identify rising public concerns, with a large population sample at a very low cost. Talk topics includesed: monitoring conversations via social media and online news; crowdsourcing citizen information via online surveys; comparing results across different data collection efforts; and integrating with other big data efforts, such as mobility analytics.

COVID-19 and the on-going locust plague pose high risks to food security. Colleagues from the Agriculture Global Practice ask, “What are the available data and digital tools with potential to monitor food prices and help mitigate food supply chain disruptions?” Speakers from the IMF, FAO, the IFC, Premise, and Indigo share their resources and ideas to help address this challenge.

Health colleagues asked the Lab to organize an “emergency” clinic to help them narrow down a set of indicators to support social distancing policy formulation. To get started, we invited external partners from Google, Facebook, MapBox, Unacast, and Carto to share the latest progress globally, as well as colleagues from DEC, GFDRR, Poverty, and FCVs to share progress on the Bank’s efforts. With this firehose of a session, we herded cats to mitigate duplication of effort and set a foundation for collaboration.

GDELT, an open-licesne repository of real time local news data, is being used to track sentiment towards COVID-19 policies and challenges. The program’s founder, Kalev Leetrau, introduces how to access the many resources avaialble through the platform.

At the request of our FCV colleagues, the Lab organized a clinic on the link between air quality and COVID-19 outcomes. We invited speakers from the Environment GP, the European Space Agency, and Climacell to share resources and best practices.

Ookla, part of the Development Data Partnership, is one of the world’s largest providers of global Internet connectivity intelligence data. The workshop started with an introduction to the Ookla platofrm and was followed by a clinic with three Bank team who had submitted proposals to work with Ookla data.

We are very excited to introduce our newest Development Data Partnership member, Indigo. Through Indigo’s Atlas platform, users can access high-resolution, real-time data on crop location and health, impact of weather on crops, and more. During this introductory workshop, we learned about and discussed how we can make the most of this new platform.

The Lab organized a Data Clinic for our DIME colleagues, to discuss on-going and proposed use of mobile device data for COVID-19 analytics. Guest speakers include colleagues from Cuebiq and Flowminder, as well as Bank staff sharing ideas and new initiatives.

The Lab organized a Data Clinic with our Health GP colleagues and Lab memebrs to learn about: (1) WB Health GP priorities for addressing COVID-19 and planned analytical work; (2) Data resources available to Bank staff through the Development Data Partnership (Facebook, Google Health Trends, and MapBox); and (3) Preliminary big data analytics being undertaken by Bank colleagues on different aspects of COVID-19 response.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) training is part of a series of events organized by Development Data Partnership for IT staff and data scientists. The course covered new Amazon tools to make it easier and faster to organize and analyze very large, unstructured data. Training materials include self-paced, step-by-step hands-on lab activities. To access lab materials, please request permission from datalab@worldbank.org to access via GitHub.

The Lab organized a Data Clinic (first of its kind) with our Agriculture GP colleagues to brainstorm ideas for tracking and predicting locust swarms, drawing upon the many data resources we have in the Bank. In addition to our Agriculture GP colleagues, colleagues from Climate Change GP, Environment GP, FCV GP, ITS GeoLab, Geospatial Operations and Support Team, DEC Analytics and Tools, DEC Development Data Hub, Development Data Partnership, and WBG Library joined us at the clinic. Together, we defined a clear set of challenges related to the current locust crisis, and we identified analytical methods and resources for addressing these challenges.

Spice up your next mission with modern data collection methods. First, learn how to capture street view images(spoiler alert - it’s easy) and then how to use these images to support project monitoring (even in FCVs), RAP development, DRM risk assessments, road safety assessments, and more. Then, learn how your colleagues are training clients to collect geo-tagged data for project monitoring. The session will wrap up with a show-and-tell table, with a selection of data collection tools and apps you can try (sub-text: come in person - it’ll be informative + fun)!

You’re almost out of BB, and your project’s gotta move. You need analytical support, but can only afford one person – do you choose the experienced economist, the hotshot data scientist, or the savvy geospatial specialist? What is the difference, anyway? Come find out in this friendly smackdown, where colleagues show off their professional pride as they tackle the same development challenge from different perspectives. Be prepared for the surprise ending.

The European Space Agency (ESA) supports on-call, prequalified geospatial firms ready to support your project on all manner of satellite-imagery and remote sensing activities. Support, valued at <= US$45,000, will be provided to qualified applicants. Apply through the Development Data Partnership (datapartnership.org).

You’ve heard about big data and AI. Now be empowered to use them. How? Find out in this engaging Tech Talk, where you will participate in a live BOT or NOT Turing test, followed by discussions with Kalev Leetrau (RealClear Media Group), who created the world’s largest open news database (GDELT), and Joe Flasher (Amazon Web Services), who will introduce the Amazon Sustainable Data Program – an unprecedented collection of open data directly relevant to Bank work. Also, colleagues from the ITS Innovation and Technology Lab and the DEC Data Analytics and Tools team will help you connect with Bank AI talent to use these modern data in your projects.

Climacell combines traditional weather sensor data with non-traditional sources to derive up-to-the minute, real time micro weather and air quality mapping and forecasts. There service is used primarily by utilities and transportation companies, like Uber and Ford, and airlines, such as JetBlue, United, and Delta. The workshop focused on the Bank’s response to the locust crisis in east Africa as a case study, but discussion and questions covered all manner of challenges – transport, agriculture, industry, etc.

Dr. Soderberg discussed the challenges and opportunities of Open Science and how the Center for Open Science is providing training and guidance to organizations on data sharing/reuse, and adding rigor to data analysis.

Every World Bank project begins with data, but not every project takes advantage of the open and proprietary data sources available to all staff. Learn how to level up your project data acquisition strategy in this lightning talk + game show mash-up.

Through the Development Data Partnership with Facebook, staff can now access anonymized Facebook data products. Facebook colleagues introduced these new resources, and staff who have been using them presented their work on gender, energy, and disaster risk management projects.

The use of data to design and monitor Bank operations isn’t new, but technologies are quickly transforming the efficiency and efficacy of our data practices, as well as the risks. No staff or client should be left behind – join our inaugural interactive Tech Talk to find out what we need to know, how we’ll learn, and, critically, how we will be supported through the revolution.

Staff were treated to a presentation on how US federal government attracts talented mid-career tech talent to do a “tour of service” to help modernize public services, followed by a visit to the US Digital Service office, across from the White House.