About the Open HRRP Project¶
Developing an ICT-based portal to open and promote effective use of National Housing Reconstruction Programme data
Background¶
Nepal’s “Household Registration for Housing Reconstruction Programme” survey is one of the largest post-disaster datasets ever collected, containing valuable information on earthquake impacts, household conditions, and socio-economic-demographic statistics. Following the devastating earthquakes, the digital survey funded by “The Nepal Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Multi-Donor Trust Fund” of the World Bank was overseen by the National Planning Commission (NPC) together with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and the Ministry of Urban Development ministries. A Directive Committee was formed under the chairmanship of the NPC for guidance, coordination and monitoring. The Central Bureau of Statistics led the data collection and inspection and the World Bank mobilized the necessary materials and manpower through the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
The survey was conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) in partnership with Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) and administered by more than 2,500 engineers recruited by Health Research and Social Development Forum (HERD) and were paired with 2,500 social mobilizers. They used Housing Reconstruction Data (HRD Collect), an app to get GPS location of houses, photos of damaged houses and the detailed socio-demographic information among 800,000 households in 31 earthquake affected districts including 11 severely affected districts. Following completion, the data was shared with the NRA. For the 11 districts that were affected, the survey contains information on:
The physical condition of buildings (primary residence and any other building structures owned by the earthquake victim) after the earthquake
Demographic and socio-economic details e.g.
- Household composition (no., age, sex, caste)
- Household income
- Compensation received after the earthquake
- Education level
- Disability
- Social security allowance
- Source of drinking water
- Cooking methods
- Toilet facilities
- Other facilities
The information in this survey has a wide variety of potential applications. Firstly, it is envisioned that it would be useful for structural engineers to be able to study exactly how different buildings collapsed. Secondly, it would be useful for the reconstruction authorities visualizing post-earthquake needs and identifying vulnerable communities for assistance. Thirdly, the data would be useful to inform disaster risk prevention efforts in Nepal as well as abroad. Fourthly, the demographic and socio-economic details of the workshop are also envisioned to be extremely useful for the local bodies, who in many cases either are conducting their planning efforts on the basis of census data from 2011 or in the case of new municipalities are lacking data completely. As such, the data from the survey could significantly support them for example in developing municipal profiles on the basic characteristics of their citizens and in helping them to build up a knowledge-base for data-driven and evidence-based planning. Fifthly, the datasets would be extremely valuable for development agencies, civil society and media organizations in order to inform their development and reporting efforts e.g. in areas such as WASH, disability and migration.
The data is particularly valuable as it provides more recent data than the 2011 Census and thus provides a much more accurate basis for evidence based planning and development interventions in the districts covered by the survey. The next census is scheduled for 2021 and the results are only expected to come out in 2024, so the data would significantly help in bridging this long time gap.
As the survey was conducted by the CBS, the data is managed by CBS and the anonymized data is available after payment of a fee for the datasets. There is interest from the National Planning Commission (NPC) to open the data completely and make it available through a dedicated portal in recognition of the value of the data for national planning purposes, local level planning and decision-making under Nepal’s new federal structure and in monitoring local progress towards the SDGs. It is anticipated that the NPC would play a stewardship role in discussing with the CBS and the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) about opening up the data as well promoting the use of the data among various Ministries and government agencies. The NPC has assured that it will support this project and will be a partner. It has also convened a meeting with the CBS and asked for its support in matters related to the substantiality of data, to which CBS has agreed. KLL with its existing collaborative relationship with these agencies has had further discussions with the Government agencies and secured an informal commitment from the Vice-chair of the National Planning commission regarding opening of the data. Thus, it is safe to envision that the data would be made fully open in order to allow users to download the datasets and use the data as per their requirements.
Proposed Interventions¶
The release of an anonymized version of the survey data to the public would represent a step forward in open government, transparency and accountability. Yet, the data’s size and complicated structure remain prohibitive factors for its use in many contexts.
In seeking to encourage the continued use of this survey data, KLL proposes:
Development of an open data portal that assists a wide range of users in exploring, visualizing, and analyzing the national housing and reconstruction data.¶
The implementation of this open data portal would greatly assist in bridging the barriers to access and use this data. Overcoming these barriers has diverse benefits for Nepal, from increasing citizen and researcher participation in data-exploration to guiding data-driven development initiatives in local level governments. Both of these goals are important pieces in strengthening the capacity of Nepal, both nationally and locally. Finally, they will help us take large strides towards attaining the sustainable development goals.
The portal would provide users four unique ways to interact with and use the data:
Storytelling.¶
We would like to curate a set of analyses and visualizations that communicate the story of the 2015 earthquake. These are intended to excite general interest and showcase the power of open-data in learning, recovering, and rebuilding from disasters.
Exploration Tools.¶
A user interface would exist for querying, filtering, and organizing the data according to geographic region, administrative level, and data theme. Users would have the functionally to explore the data according to their own interests as well as download the data.
Visualization Tools.¶
A set of tools would exist for visualizing the survey data in different formats. In addition to the data exploration interface, users would be able to generate their own charts, maps, and tables without having to handle the raw data. Analysis Tools. Users wishing to work with the data directly would have the ability to query and download the raw survey data for further study. Additionally, a more sophisticated data analysis package, designed to work with the survey’s data format, would be available to users.
Conducting user research among the users of the data and portal¶
KLL will assess the expectations and requirements of users (primarily municipality offices, civil society organizations, etc.) of the data and the portal. KLL will organize workshops in which these and other potential users will participate and discover the set of functionalities that would make this portal useful to them. The workshops will feed into a user research study around the use of national housing and reconstruction data and the portal.
Capacity Building of Users on the Use of the Data and Tools of the Portal¶
KLL will be sensitizing, training and thus empowering the primary users (municipal offices, civil society organizations, etc.) with the skills of why and how to use the data and tools provided by the portal. KLL will organize trainings, workshops to (a) raise the data literacy level in local government and civil society sphere, and (b) to acquaint them with the power and possibilities of data-driven, fact-based interventions using the data and tools as the case in point.