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.

Below are recommendations for data entry in a BSS that ensure that it will be easy to load into the HEA Baseline Database.

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 format (shapefile, GeoJSON, etc.). Spatial files are essential for including the BSS information in the Livelihoods Explorer application.

BSS files

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 The .xls format is obsolete and is not supported by many modern tools.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, a new code should be used when there is a major change in geography.

Example

A country is split into 40 Livelihood Zones when baselines are done in 2015. When they are redone in 2025, it is only split into 15 Livelihood Zones. The numbering for the 2025 set of Livelihood Zones should be 41-55, not 1-15, since all the boundaries have significantly shifted.

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.

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.

In addition to the standard fields such as reference year and currency, 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.

• 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. Typically this will require a definition for Season 1 and Season 2, which are used by Milk Production. Additional definitions may be needed for other Seasons referenced in the BSS, such as deyr, belg, post-recolte, etc. Each definition should identify the type of Season (harvest, post-harvest, lean, etc.) and the typical start and end of the season (in months or in number of days from the start of the year). For example, Season 1: Main harvest season; October-December.

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.

Livelihood Strategies (Data, Data2, Data3)

Metadata should only be in Column A

Don’t put information describing the livelihood strategy (metadata) in the per-community columns (column B onwards). For every row, the numbers for each community must refer to the same Livelihood Strategy. If the strategy refers to a particular type of food, then it should be the label in Column A, not in that row in Column B.  

For example, the following data:

Should properly be entered as:

Notice that “termites” has been moved from the community cells (columns B and D) to the label in column A.

Column A should explicitly state the expected data values for the row

If data is expected in the row, then the label in column A should explicitly state what data is expected.

Example: Bambara nuts

If the expected data is the number of local units purchased, use bambara nuts: no. local meas.

If the expected data is the amount produced, use bambara nuts: kg produced.

This avoids the ambiguity inherent in labels such as Other Crop Type: bambara nuts, where it is unclear whether the values represent the amount in kg, the number of local measures, or just a label where no additional data is expected.

Data should not be stored in label rows

Do not put data values, including 0, in columns B onward on rows where the value in column A is a heading or other label not associated with expected data. The BSS ingestion will refuse to load a BSS containing data in unexpected locations to ensure that no important data is lost.

This sometimes happens when the previous Livelihood Activity contained a 0 entry for many rows and they have been copied down one row too far, into the heading for the next section of the BSS.

Use zero purposefully

Only use zero when there is an opportunity for earning money, kcal, etc. If there is no opportunity, leave the cell blank. For example, labor should be left blank for kcal unless the field contains kcals from payment in kind.