DataBridges

DataBridges is an application that allows users in the field to contribute data to a centralized database in a fast and easy way, maintaining a flexible design to various data templates. The application has two objectives:

1. ensuring quality of data submitted;

2. supporting a timely, consistent, standardized storage of data collected digitally via multiple tools.

DataBridges keeps master data for all its modules. This data includes descriptions that help identify direct connections between the entities from which data is collected, forming the basis of the data standardisation process. It also helps standardise and clean data during the upload phase using automated methods, which reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks.

This improves effectiveness by allowing automation and making the analysis fully replicable. It also eliminates human error in the data cleaning and standardisation process. As a result, analysts can quickly access the data they need through a dedicated library.

WFP users can access the dedicated Teams channel to receive additional guidance and support or email to wfp.vaminfo@wfp.org.

Market price module

Prices are an overarching indicator that provides key information for many WFP activities. As the outcome of supply and demand forces, they can give a timely insight into many different drivers that influence the functioning of a market and that are relevant for food assistance programming. In countries where WFP operates, these drivers include the macro-economic context, natural or human-induced disasters, physical infrastructure and weather associated with crop production, as well as international commodity price volatility and transmission to domestic prices. Against this backdrop, WFP often analyses markets looking at three aspects: i) the structure, as in actors and institutions for supply and demand, barriers to entry as a market player, trends in production, and market catchments; ii) the conduct, as in competition levels, rules and standards as well as contract enforcement; and iii) the performance, as in different methods of price analysis such as seasonality and volatility, market integration, profit margins and income generation, and purchasing power patterns.

In support of Data Storage, Analysis & Reporting, DataBridges hosts master lists of commodities, markets and currencies, allowing the management of market price reports for retail, wholesale, farmgate and contracted shop data. Thanks to this strict management of data, automated analysis is reported in various places, including the one-stop-shop DataViz, particularly in its Economic Explorer.

The DataBridges Prices Guidance Note provides detailed information on the DataBridges price module. The resource equips users with instructions on how to access and upload price data to the VAM price database.

Market functionality index module

The MFI is a quantitative tool jointly designed by the Supply Chain (SC) and Research, Assessment and Monitoring (RAM) divisions to benchmark marketplace functionality in the following nine dimensions: assortment, availability, price, resilience of supply chains, competition, infrastructure, service, food quality, and access and protection.

It assigns marketplaces an overall score representing its functionality from 0 to 10, which can be interpreted consistently across time and geography. The MFI provides an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses for each of the nine dimensions deemed important to evaluate market functionality. 

The Market Functionality Index comes with an MFI package that supports the entire cycle of a market assessment: from the design phase to data collection, and storage, up to the analysis and reporting of results.

In support of Data Storage, Analysis & Reporting we have developed: the end-to-end data pipeline that handles data exchange from WFP’s field offices, stores the data in a centralized database in MFI Dataviz, processes the data every 24 hours with automated scripts where results are automatically visualized and an MFI Report Template to support report writing. The one-stop-shop DataViz, with its Economic Explorer, reports more granular details on the MFI analysis.

Retailer performance monitoring and evaluation module

The RPME process is a systematic review of retailers throughout the contract period that aims to verify and track how well and how consistently the retailer is meeting agreed-upon performance targets.

• The approach relies upon a semi-standardized survey and digital methodology to consistently evaluate retailers.

• This includes corporate performance evaluation criteria (mandatory and optional), while it also enables the inclusion of the country and context-specific questions.

• The approach is valid both for Value and Commodity Vouchers and it is adaptable for specific mechanisms.

Thanks to data management in DataBridges, Retailers Performance is computed into a performance score that is the consolidation of a score assigned per each key performance evaluation areas: (1) Assortment and Availability, (2) Price, (3) Food Safety and Quality, (4) Service and (5) Compliance.

Household surveys module

This module of the DatBridges platform manages and connects four main steps in the evidence generation process used in WFP Assessment and Monitoring surveys:

• content collection (i.e. MODA survey/questionnaire),

• data management (i.e. coding and classification of collected data),

• data quality control (i.e. validation and editing/imputing),

• and processing (i.e. disposal of data files and variables for analysis and use).

This User Manual provides clear instructions on all the functions in the DataBridges module. It is meant to support other guidelines on specific workflows for monitoring and assessments. Users should consult this guide if they have questions about how the system works or when they are starting to use DataBridges for managing survey data. The household module covers more than just household surveys; it includes all assessment and monitoring surveys with various units of analysis, such as individual, household, and site. Other survey types, like Market functionality, Prices, and Retailer Performance, are handled in different DataBridges modules.

Data scientist utilities

To provide a better experience to data scientists trying to access DataBridges data, we have developed two Python and R libraries that facilitate the queries to Databridges API endpoints.

DataBridgesClient is a Python and R library to query Databridges API endpoints.

DataBridgesKnots is a Python and R library that supports the execution of common tasks, reducing the technical barrier in extracting analysis-ready datasets. For example, getting price data from this endpoints allows you to merge the Price information with Markets metadata (e.g.: GPS coordinates).