Development Data Partnership at the World Bank Annual Meeting | by Mapbox

Share Map Box Movement data

By Mikel Maron

Mapbox is honored to be at the World Bank Annual Meeting to celebrate the importance of sharing data to solve tough problems (watch here). Through the Development Data Partnership, we collaborated with economic development experts to improve access to health services during the pandemic in Senegal and Indonesia, prioritize infrastructure investments for the tourism sector in Sri Lanka, and determine population vulnerability during the COVID-19 lockdown. all over India. Inspired by this partnership, we have released Mapbox Movement data from January to August 2020 covering the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and India. This data is immediately available to all Mapbox users, and India will be available soon.

In this data release, and all of our data products, we prioritize privacy — we minimize and anonymize the data we collect, take additional steps to prevent re-identification, encrypt data in transit and while it is stored, and implement strong access controls. We only use location data to make our products better and provide benefits to users on our maps. This Movement data is now available to help address global challenges to health, the environment and livelihoods.

The pandemic has demonstrated how important timely and detailed information routinely collected by the private sector is to optimize government responses. For international organizations like the World Bank, partnering with private companies on public goods projects can be slow and challenging due to a variety of legal, technical, business, and ethical issues. We started the Development Data Partnership to tackle this problem head-on. This is not easy, and we are grateful for the patience and support of partners like Mapbox in helping make the Partnership program happen.

— Holly Krambeck, Economist and Development Data Partnership Program Manager at the World Bank

Economists at the World Bank understand the value of data. When it comes to our leaders around the world, COVID has made clear the differences between those in society who have the resources to make data-driven decisions and those who do not. That’s why the best data also needs to be directly available to those communities to drive progress forward. With the right data and insights, civil society around the world can inform, advocate, and hold decision makers accountable.

What’s unique about the Data Partnership is how quickly we can have real conversations and address the issues that the World Bank team is facing. By bringing together health and transportation experts, economists, and geospatial technologists, we can quickly assess technology and data options and move toward workable solutions. Here are some projects over the past year.

Traditionally, traffic data collection has relied on labor-intensive methods or fixed sensors. The World Bank is taking a more efficient approach in Sri Lanka. They used Mapbox Traffic data to model which road improvements would most reduce travel times to Sri Lanka’s amazing tourist locations. The model found that just 2.97 kilometers of road could reduce one-way travel time and provide significant benefits to the tourism sector. An unexpected conclusion from this analysis is that to obtain the maximum benefits, investments should not be focused on the road network, but rather directly on the entrances and parking areas of tourist sites.

India is very vulnerable to high levels of coronavirus transmission. More than 100 million people live in informal settlements, and they face major challenges in implementing social distancing and sanitation. By analyzing Mapbox Movement data which contains data on COVID-19 disease dynamics and underlying vulnerabilities in the population, we can build a rich understanding of the impact of the lockdown, particularly in India’s most vulnerable regions.

To answer questions about the greatest need for health facilities in Senegal, Spain, Indonesia and the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank analyzed Facebook Population Data compared with open data on health facilities from the government and OpenStreetMap. Taking population centers as starting points and health facilities as destinations, the analysts used the Mapbox Matrix API to map on a national scale how far a person is from the nearest health facility when traveling by road. This analysis highlights underserved populations and shows where investment is needed.

Working with Movement data

Working with the World Bank has helped us make the Movement better. We want to work with anyone facing difficult data challenges. Get Movement data here and contact the Community team to find out how we can provide support. For teams at the World Bank, IADB, and IMF, make a request through the Development Data Partnership for our global datasets or APIs, and we’ll connect to see how we can help.

Map feature data from map box And OpenStreetMap and their data partners.