Data
Evidence for Development aims to make rigorous, innovative and policy-relevant data and analytical tools as widely available as possible.
The individual household method (IHM) generates practical, reliable and detailed data on households’ economic activities, demographics, access to basic needs, and other characteristics that can be defined by users, producing key insights for policy and programme design, monitoring and evaluation. The method has applications across a wide range of disciplines including climate change and adaptation, food security, health, micro enterprise and social protection.
Our open-source software provides the basis for storing and analysing this data. The software provides statistical output such as reports on households’ assets, income sources, capabilities to meet their food needs or meet a locally-defined minimum acceptable standard of living, and simulations of how these are likely to be affected by changes in the prices or production of various goods. Using Excel, this data can then be further manipulated and combined to investigate wider trends or relationships.
We are gradually accumulating large data sets, and continue to explore and develop new techniques for displaying and analysing data – for example, producing new types of charts, aggregating ‘big data’, and modelling changes in behaviour and economic circumstances – in order to extract and disseminate key insights about people’s lives that can influence policies.
Contact us if you are interested in getting involved with our open-source (Python) software and/or displaying and analysing of data, or if you would like to discuss how we might be able to assist you or your organisation.
Our latest data studies and blogs
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28th September 2016
Measuring resilience to climate change in the Lake Victoria basin
Just over a year ago the UK Department for International Development (DfID), with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) launched its ‘Future Climate for Africa’ (FCFA) project. This £20 million project, involving five research consortia, aims to “generate fundamentally new climate science focused on Africa, and to ensure that this science has an impact on […]
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23rd September 2015
Banking on Evidence for Development – a month in the life of a volunteer
It’s August 2013 and I’m about as broke as a ‘banker’ in London can be. I had eagerly taken up my first position in the big city: interning at RBS’ risk department. That’s right, I had made it to the big time… And then rent happened… And bills… So with accrued holiday time but no […]
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30th July 2015
New HEA software developed by Evidence for Development
The household economy approach (HEA) is a method for assessing the vulnerability of rural populations to economic shocks and changes, based on their livelihood patterns and market information. It is now widely used as a method of famine early warning by many governments and humanitarian agencies, and also has important applications for managing the impacts […]
