00:00:00 Introduction and overview

Alex: Hello and welcome. This webinar is a one-hour session ideal for M&E and Information Management practitioners who wish to learn more about the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX).

Godfrey Takavarasha: Thank you very much, Alex, and thank you to Faye as well for the kind introduction. We at HDX have been great fans of the work that BeDataDriven and ActivityInfo have been doing, and we are really glad to be here today. A huge thank you to everyone for taking your time to join us.

My name is Godfrey Takavarasha, and I work as a Data Manager with HDX. On the agenda today is a brief talk about the Humanitarian Data Exchange. I will start by setting the stage to situate where the HDX platform fits within the humanitarian sector. Then, I will give a brief showcase of some of the work we have done on HDX before moving into a live demo of the platform to show you the key features, specifically how to find data.

00:01:38 The Centre for Humanitarian Data

HDX stands for the Humanitarian Data Exchange, and we have been around since 2014. Next year is our 10-year anniversary, and we are happy to have been part of the platform that has transformed the data landscape in the humanitarian sector. HDX is a product of the Centre for Humanitarian Data, which is part of OCHA, the United Nations office that coordinates international humanitarian assistance.

We are based in The Hague, but we have a global presence with teams in New York, Geneva, Nairobi, Dakar, Bangkok, Jakarta, and other parts of the world. This allows us to support humanitarian response globally. Our goal at the Centre is to increase the use and impact of data in humanitarian response.

00:03:45 Focus areas and data types

We define humanitarian data in terms of three "buckets." The first bucket is baseline data or context data, such as development data, damage assessments, or geospatial data like the Common Operational Datasets (CODs). The second bucket covers data about the current situation and the people affected by the crisis, such as daily caseload figures or profiling data for IDPs. The third bucket is data around the response: who is doing what and where, and the tracking of financial contributions.

The Centre has four focus areas: data services, data responsibility, data literacy, and predictive analytics. HDX falls under data services, where we work to increase the interoperability of data through shared standards and platforms. We also work on data responsibility to increase trust and cooperation, data literacy to increase capacity, and predictive analytics to help anticipate crises.

00:06:24 Platform usage and growth

HDX has been described as the "Google of humanitarian data." It is often the first place people go to look for a dataset. Last year, we had 1.5 million users on the platform and 1.8 million downloads. We host about 20,700 datasets shared by over 300 active organizations. This usage is a testament to how critical data has become in the humanitarian sector.

HDX exists to make it easy to find and use data for analysis. It is an open platform that is simple to use. Beyond just hosting data, we have made progress in closing data gaps through what we call Data Grids.

00:08:51 Data grids and completeness

For every country that has a Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), we have Data Grids. These grids collect a curated set of key data categories so that users can easily find the latest standardized data for these crises. We classify data on the grid as "complete" if at least one dataset meets the sub-category curation criteria, "incomplete" if some criteria are not met, or "no data" if we cannot find it.

We are constantly working to add new sectors, such as climate data. As of last year, data completeness across all countries was 73%, up from 54% in 2019. Some contexts, like South Sudan, have shown 100% completeness regarding the sub-categories we track. We use this data to produce the "State of Open Humanitarian Data" report, which I encourage everyone to read.

00:12:54 Data visualization and explorers

We use the data on HDX to create insights through visualizations. For example, we have the COVID-19 Data Explorer and the Ukraine Data Explorer. These tools take data from different contributors and combine them to provide a coherent overview of the humanitarian situation. We also have the Horn of Africa Drought Data Explorer, which tracks key figures related to food insecurity and drought in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

All data on HDX is provided by contributing organizations; HDX does not create or collect the data itself. We have an approval process for organizations before they can share data.

00:16:24 Navigating the HDX platform

Let's move to the live demo. You can access the site at data.humdata.org. On the homepage, you have a search bar and main navigation links for Data, Locations, Organizations, and Data Viz. There is also a link to our FAQ, which contains great information. If you sign up for an account, you can ask questions to data contributors and add data yourself.

00:21:14 Understanding dataset pages

When you search for data—for example, "humanitarian needs"—you can filter results by location, format, organization, and tags. If we look at the "Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs Overview," we can see the structure of a dataset page. It includes a title, a description, and icons indicating if it is a COD, sub-national, or contains HXL tags.

You can see download statistics, update frequency, and options to follow the dataset or contact the contributor. In this case, the contributor is OCHA Afghanistan.

00:25:40 Data previews and metadata

A key feature on HDX is the ability to preview data using Quick Charts, powered by the Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL). If a dataset has HXL tags, these charts are automatically generated, allowing you to see things like "People in Need by province" before downloading the file.

Further down the page, you can see the download history, related showcases, and the list of resources (files) available for download. Finally, the metadata section provides details on the source, reference period, license, methodology, and file format.

00:29:09 Browsing by location and organization

You can also browse data by location. For countries with a Humanitarian Response Plan, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), you will see the Data Grid showing the completeness of different data categories. From there, you can access all datasets associated with that location.

Similarly, you can browse by organization. We have nearly 300 member organizations sharing data. For instance, you can view all datasets shared by the American Red Cross or the World Food Programme. The Data Viz page offers a gallery of visualizations, such as the event page for the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, which collects all relevant data in one place.

00:34:21 How to share data on HDX

If you want to share data, you can click the "Add Data" button. You can upload local files or use APIs and links to Google Drive. The process involves setting the dataset visibility (private initially), adding files, and providing metadata.

Crucially, you must confirm that the data does not contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII). If you indicate the data contains PII, the system will tell you it is not allowed. If the data contains microdata, such as household surveys, we require additional checks. Once you submit the dataset, it goes through our review process.

00:38:17 Q&A: Organization access and screening

Alex: We have a question from Tafadzwa: "How possible is it for a national organization to have access to HDX to share their information?"

Godfrey Takavarasha: That is a great question. We do carry out a screening process. First, the organization must have relevant humanitarian data to share. Second, they must have a track record so we can verify they are a genuine humanitarian organization. This includes working groups or clusters. We strongly encourage local organizations to set up accounts and share their data on HDX.

00:42:23 Q&A: Data protection and privacy

Alex: Weston asks, "Do you sign data protection agreements with agencies before they upload their data?"

Godfrey Takavarasha: We take the protection of privacy, especially of beneficiaries, very seriously. We do not allow PII on HDX. The data shared must be public in nature. Our QA process checks for PII and for data that could be used to re-identify people. If necessary, we recommend statistical disclosure control.

Because we do not envision having sensitive data on HDX, we do not sign data protection agreements. However, we discuss safeguards with contributors during onboarding. Our Data Responsibility team also provides extensive guidance and tip sheets on data protection.

00:47:09 Q&A: Specific data availability

Alex: Newton in Somalia asks about 3W (Who does What, Where) data, satellite imagery, and population data.

Godfrey Takavarasha: We do publish 3W data, and for Somalia specifically, we are expecting a new update soon. Regarding satellite imagery, we do not provide the imagery itself, but we have connections in the industry. If you email us at hdx@un.org, we may be able to connect you with providers. For population data, OCHA Somalia shares this on HDX, and you can find it by searching "Somalia population."

00:51:20 Q&A: Data quality assurance

Alex: Sajjad asks about quality assurance checks to ensure data quality for research purposes.

Godfrey Takavarasha: Our data sharing model relies on approving trusted organizations. For example, for food security data, we rely on the World Food Programme because they are the experts with the infrastructure to collect that data. We rely on their expertise for quality. However, we are working internally on new features to provide more indicators of data quality directly on the platform to help users assess it better.

00:55:14 Q&A: Humanitarian versus development data

Alex: Weston asks if the platform only covers humanitarian data or also data from development agencies.

Godfrey Takavarasha: We focus on making it easy to find humanitarian data, but there is a fine line between humanitarian and development data. We do host data that could be considered development data, such as economic indicators, because it is useful for humanitarians to understand the context of a crisis.

00:56:49 Conclusion

Alex: Thank you, Godfrey, for this tour of the platform. For those whose questions we didn't get to, please use the search functionality on HDX. I also want to mention that ActivityInfo has great integration with HDX, relying on them for our geodatabase and allowing users to share data from ActivityInfo to HDX. Thanks again to everyone for joining us.