Baseline Data Collection Guidance

Loading new Baseline Storage Sheets (BSS) into the database requires the import to recognize the data in the various worksheets and allocate the correct standard metadata. Data that cannot be recognized automatically because it uses different terminology or different cell locations to the norm must be reconciled manually, requiring additional effort.

This page contains recommendations for general BSS setup. The Livelihood Strategies page contains recommendations for data entry in a BSS. These guidelines ensure that data will be easy to load into the HEA Baseline Database. Data that differs from these norms cannot be recognized automatically and must be reconciled manually, requiring additional effort and risking additional data entry errors.

Spatial files

Each BSS should be accompanied by a spatial file that contains the boundaries for the associated Livelihood Zone. This file can be Livelihood Zone specific or a contain multiple Livelihood Zone boundaries (e.g., boundaries for an entire country) and can be in any geocoded format (shapefile, GeoJSON, etc.). Spatial files are essential for including the BSS information in the Livelihoods Explorer application.

File formats

All new BSS should be maintained using current versions of Excel and saved in the .xlsx file format. The .xls format is obsolete and is not supported by many modern tools. The database does not support .csv files.

Livelihood Zone Codes

The database allows for comparison of a Livelihood Zone across time.

In order to ensure accurate comparison, Livelihood Zones that use the same code should be broadly the same geographically. While small changes are acceptable (see Burkina Faso or Mali, for example), a new code should be used when there is a major change in geography.

Note that this has not been the practice historically for Livelihood Zones. Where we have baseline data for a historic Livelihood Zone where the geography has changed significantly, the Livelihood Zone codes will be appended with a reference year (see Nigeria baselines, for example).

In some cases, organizations collect baseline data intending to represent areas smaller than a livelihood zone, usually the intersection of a livelihood zone and one or more administrative units. In such cases, the baseline will retain the number of the larger zone and will be appended with a 3-letter geographic identifier. For example, the Niger agropastoral zone crosses the entire country from East to West. No organization has yet assessed the entire zone as a unit with a single BSS. Rather, multiple baselines collected over many years cover parts of the zone representing one or more administrative departments each (i.e., NE04(DTK), NE04(TAN), NE04(NMT), NE04(TAP)).

Methods

The Methods sheet should contain sufficient information for the BSS to be understood with no need to look up key information in other files.

Important standard fields:

• Dates of fieldwork

• Reference year dates and description

• Currency and exchange rate

We recommend adding entries for:

• code: The Livelihood Zone Code (e.g. ML14) is normally part of the filename, but the format is not standard and the filename frequently contains dates or other information. Putting the code as a separate field in the Methods tab will make it system-readable.

• alternate_code: In some countries, there an alternative Livelihood Zone Code that is used locally. For example, ML11 is referred to within Mali as KOL.

• name_en: The agreed name of the Livelihood Zone is a critical attribute, and should be available within the BSS. For the BSS to be loaded into the HEA Database the English name (name_en) must be specified even if the BSS was authored in another language. Please follow the naming conventions described in the Practitioners' Guide to HEA, Chapter 2.

• name_fr, name_es, etc.: There should be separate name entries for each language in which the BSS will be used. Available options are as follows:

  • French: name_fr

  • Spanish: name_es

  • Portuguese: name_pt

  • Arabic: name_ar

• main_livelihood_category_id: The main Livelihood Category is important for analyses that process data from multiple BSS. This entry should be one of the following:

  • Agricultural

  • Agropastoral

  • Pastoral

  • Irrigation

  • Peri_Urban

  • Urban

  • Fishing

• description_en, description_fr, etc.: While the Livelihood Zone name must be relatively succinct for display, the description allows for a paragraph that describes the zone. There should be separate description entries for each language in which the BSS will be used. Description language options are the same as livelihood zone name languages.

• Season definitions: Any Seasons referenced within the BSS should have an accompanying definition. Cropping seasons referenced in the BSS (such as deyr, belg, irrigated, recessional, Season 1/2/3 or A/B/C, etc.) should include the entire cropping season beginning with land preparation and ending with harvest. Milk production Season 1 and Season 2 should be defined if either are used.

  • Each definition should identify:

    • Purpose: Cropping, nutrition, milking, etc.

    • Type of season: Harvest, post-harvest, lean, etc.

    • Typical start and end: The start and end of the season in months or number of days from the start of the year

    • Milking cohorts, if applicable: For milk production, identify whether the seasons are for multiple cohorts of animals or early and late milking seasons for a single cohort.

    • Geography, if applicable: Some countries have multiple different seasons in different parts of the country or for different types of livelihood. In this case, the season definition must also be associated with the relevant livelihood zones or other geographic boundaries.

  • Examples:

    • Season 1: Cropping, main harvest season; October-December

    • Season 2: Milking, second cohort; April-June

Community Names

The Community Full Name is constructed from the admin unit name (typically labeled District) and the community name (typically labeled Village) in rows 4 and 5 of the WB, Data, Data2, and Data3 worksheets in a BSS. The database uses these names to ensure that the data from the different worksheets can be linked to the correct Community entry in the database. Consequently, the spelling of those names in all places where they appear is critical to successfully recognizing the data.

Ideally, either cell validation or conditional formatting should be used to ensure that the names are accurate, for example, by comparing them to the Form 3 interview results in ‘WB’!C4:L5.