Assessing Traffic Congestion and Accessibility to Jobs Using Waze for Cities and Mapbox Data

Case Study Mapbox Waze Urban Development Transport

Traffic congestion and suburbanization are becoming increasingly significant factors affecting urban mobility and limiting access to jobs and opportunities in most mid-sized cities worldwide.

Development Data Partnership 2023 Year in Review

It has been an extraordinary year for the Development Data Partnership. Before we start the new year, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and look back on what we have accomplished in 2023.

Assessing Digital Transformation in Firms in Latin America and the Caribbean

Case Study LinkedIn Jobs and Development

Are firms in Latin America and the Caribbean lagging in terms of their adoption of digital technologies? The Inter-American Development Bank’s Competitiveness, Technology, and Innovation Division leveraged LinkedIn data on the penetration of digital skills as part of an assessment on the adoption of technologies in the region.

Analyzing Digital Skills Gap in MENA Countries to Inform An Upskilling Initiative

Case Study LinkedIn Jobs and Development

Digital technologies are reshaping work and traditional jobs. It is essential for workers across all sectors to acquire and strengthen their digital skills to stay competitive in the job market.

Inferring COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes from X

Case Study X Health COVID-19

Social media has become a platform for the public to openly advocate and express their opinions on various issues including health.

Understanding Informal Trade Dynamics in Benin

Case Study Outlogic Inequality and Shared Prosperity

Benin’s trade performance has been improving gradually in the past decade. Notably, informal trade, smuggling and small-scale cross border trade (SSCBT) are part of the large unrecorded trade dynamics in this African country.

Understanding the Economic Impact of Vaccination

Case Study Meta Health

The World Bank East Asia and the Pacific Economic Update April 2022 analyzed challenges and opportunities facing the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region.

Maldives Development Update (April 2021): A Digital Dawn

Case Study Ookla Digital Development

Authors for the special focus topic (Part B) on digital development: Gohar Malumyan, Junko Narimatsu and Pui Shen Yoong, with guidance from Siddhartha Raja and Fernando Im.

Is El Salvador's health care system ready for telemedicine?

Case Study Ookla Health

The World Bank’s Digital Economy for Latin America (DE4LAC) initiative leveraged data from Ookla for Good™ to analyze El Salvador’s telecommunication network to understand to what extent the national healthcare system could leverage the existing digital infrastructure and develop e-health applications.

LinkedIn Data Reveals How Labor Markets Have Been Changing in Latin America and the Caribbean Since the Pandemic

Case Study LinkedIn Jobs and Development

Despite the devastating economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are on the verge of recovery.

Insights from Leveraging Big Data to Track the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mobility in Buenos Aires

Waze Transport

How did the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures affect mobility in cities around the globe? To inform transport mobility planning, congestion data provided by Waze for Cities was used for a World Bank study on how travel patterns in Buenos Aires changed as a result of pandemic-related restrictions and changing travel preferences.

Analyzing the Evolution of Telework Adoption in Latin America and the Caribbean

Case Study LinkedIn Jobs and Development

Due to the COVID pandemic, the use of telework increased rapidly in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, as it did globally.

Empowering Female Entrepreneurs to Cross Over into Male-Dominated Sectors

Meta Gender Jobs and Development

Female entrepreneurship is on the rise globally. However, factors such as social norms and unconscious biases are holding women back from entering more profitable male-dominated sectors.

Green Jobs for Women and Diverse Groups Help Promote Equality and Climate Resilience

LinkedIn Climate Change Jobs and Development Gender

The role of women and diverse populations, including indigenous peoples, persons of African descent, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ persons, is crucial in driving the decarbonization process and developing climate change resilience strategies.

How Big Data and Machine Learning Can Strengthen Road Safety

Case Study Mapbox Mapillary Waze Transport

High-quality and reliable data is necessary to gain useful, actionable insights and enhance road safety conditions. However, collecting data on road safety through manual detection can be expensive, time-consuming, and complex.

Why We Should Accelerate the Use of Digital Technologies in Africa

Case Study Ookla Digital Development

As Africa’s population grows, digital technologies are becoming increasingly important for the continent’s economic transformation and job creation. From computers to apps to machine learning, digital technologies offer new opportunities for people and businesses across Africa.

Reaching Digital Deserts – Extending Access to Broadband Has Never Been So Important

Case Study Ookla Digital Development

The internet is crucial for us to access information, services, job opportunities, education, and more. However, while urban communities flourish in the online world, many rural communities have been left behind when it comes to ensuring fast and reliable internet access.

Development Data Partnership Day 2023

Announcement

Join us for the Development Data Partnership Day on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. US ET in person at the World Bank HQ in Washington, DC.

For Reduced Exposure to COVID-19, the Quality of Your Internet Matters

Meta Ookla COVID-19 Health Digital Development

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments-imposed movement restrictions to curb the spread of the disease. With access to the internet, people could work or study remotely, therefore making it easier for them to adhere to pandemic-related movement restrictions.

The Effects of City Growth on Traffic and Urban Mobility

Case Study Waze Disaster Risk Management Transport

The Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca has been deeply affected by urban sprawl, which has strained the city’s traffic system and caused increased congestion on roadways.

Heatwaves Data Collaborative

Announcement

The Heatwaves Data Collaborative knits together efforts by international organizations, private firms, and researchers to develop standard datasets and methodologies for identifying and mitigating the urgent socio-economic impacts of heatwaves.

Development Data Partnership Day 2022

Announcement

This day is dedicated to addressing global climate, health, and food security challenges through public-private data science collaboration. Speakers from LinkedIn, Google, Data for Good at Meta, Spectus (formerly Cuebiq), Ookla for Good, and Mapbox will share their latest experiences on data science collaboration for public good, while leadership and colleagues from the IDB, UNDP, IMF, and the World Bank will introduce project impacts.

Social Norms and Gender Equality in South Asia

Case Study Meta Gender

This blog highlights recent work from a larger body of research on gender equality carried out at the World Bank. The blog itself relies on Chapter 3 of this report South Asia Economic Focus Reshaping Norms: A New Way Forward.

Buenos Aires Transport Demand Planning

Case Study Waze Transport Urban Development

Challenge The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures implemented in 2020 had a significant impact on mobility in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), adding new constrains to the travel behaviours of residents and businesses.

Where Did Everyone Go? Potential of Digital Movement Data for Natural Hazards Management

Case Study Cuebiq Disaster Risk Management

Every September 19th since the great earthquake of 1985, Mexico City conducts a major drill: people filing out of buildings in an orderly fashion.

A Data-Driven Framework to Support Bogota’s Barrios Vitales Project

Case Study Waze Unacast Mapbox Transport

A data-driven framework to support the design, implementation, and evaluation of a superblock model in Bogotá from a speed management perspective and inform street design alternatives in the urban space.

Communicating for Health: How Did Indians Get Informed about COVID-19 during the Pandemic?

Case Study Meta Health COVID-19 Health

The COVID-19 pandemic saw an unprecedented amount of scientific information disseminated: throughout 2020, 11 research articles on COVID-19 were published every hour.

Understanding Societal Responses to Policies Undertaken During Emergencies: Lessons from COVID-19’s Second Wave in Maharashtra

Case Study Outlogic SpaceKnow Health Disaster Risk Management Urban Development COVID-19

Maharashtra, one of the wealthiest states in India, was among the worst hit by COVID-19, registering nearly 140,000 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Visualizing Millions of Waze Traffic Alerts with BigQuery, H3 and Dask

Tutorial Waze Transport Urban Development

Waze for Cities, a Data Partner of the Development Data Partnership, connects government partners to high quality, frequent and granular traffic data extremely valuable in informing public sector, transport and urban planning as well as addressing the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Understanding the Post COVID-19 Labor Market in Latin America and the Caribbean

LinkedIn Jobs and Development COVID-19

Challenge The Covid-19 Labor Markets Observatory, managed by the Inter-American Development Bank Labor Markets Division, aimed to understand how COVID-19 has affected labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Digitalization and Resilience to COVID-19 Shocks: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Ookla Digital Development

Challenge 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

Meta Health COVID-19

With 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 Transport

Challenge 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 Urban Development COVID-19

Lima’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 Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown Measures on Internet Speed

Ookla Digital Development COVID-19

COVID-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.

Optimizing Tourism Investments: Identifying Chokepoints and Underperforming Minor Roads in Sri Lanka

Mapbox Transport

Challenge 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.

Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 in Indonesia

Premise Health Poverty

Challenge 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

Tutorial

Databricks 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

Ookla Digital Development

Challenge 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.io Agriculture and Food Climate Change

Ag Observatory in collaboration with the World Bank Data Lab guided and facilitated Climacell’s entry into the CGIAR Big Data Inspire Challenge 2020.

Analyzing Spatial Accessibility of Health Facilities in Indonesia and Philippines

Meta Mapbox Health Transport

Challenge: 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 Mapbox

Following 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

Announcement

Download 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

Meta Transport COVID-19

Challenge: 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.

Introducing the Data Partnership on GitHub

Announcement

After 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

Announcement Tomorrow.io Agriculture and Food

Challenge: 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

Announcement Meta Veraset Unacast Cuebiq Outlogic

As 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

Meta Google Transport

As 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?

Meta Mapbox Health COVID-19

Background 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

Meta Energy

Challenge: 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

Mapbox Jobs and Development

Challenge: 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

Meta Gender Jobs and Development

Challenge: 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

Waze Transport

“Data Partnership brings domain expertise. Google brings data expertise. Together we impact real world problems.” –Google’s Bailey-Galvis noted at a Data Partnership event in early February 2019

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

WhereIsMyTransport Disaster Risk Management Transport

Challenge: 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

Announcement

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.