Metadata Standards
To maintain consistency, accuracy, and global interoperability, the HEA Database adheres to international standards for metadata coding, where possible.
Below are the specific metadata types and the standards applied to each type of reference data:
Country
Standard: ISO 3166
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: FEWS NET Hub
Description: Countries are identified using the ISO 3166 standard, which provides codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. The database uses the ISO standard names for countries, and uses the iso3166a2 code as the short identifier.
The current list of countries is accurate, and changes to the list are rare. The FEWS NET Hub will keep the list up to date from the ISO-published master list.
Currency
Standard: ISO 4217
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: FEWS NET Hub
Description: Currencies are classified according to the ISO 4217 standard, which assigns three-letter codes to each currency.
The current list of countries is accurate, and changes to the list are rare. The FEWS NET Hub will keep the list up to date from the ISO-published master list.
Livelihood Activity
Standard: Custom taxonomy developed specifically for the HEA Database, informed by local knowledge and existing classifications where possible.
Owner: Save the Children
Editors: Save the Children
Description: Livelihood Activity records mostly contain pointers to other metadata (Season, Product, Unit Of Measure, etc.). There is no equivalent for Livelihood Strategy or Activity to the way the Wealth Group Characteristic items are used to categorize the Wealth Group Characteristic Values that are read from the ‘WB’ worksheet in the BSS.
Livelihood Activities typically use the Classified Product that is used for equivalent Market Price data in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse:
Livestock Sale activities use the Classified Product for the animal, e.g. L02123: Goats. If the BSS includes a designation of local or export quality animals, more specific Classified Products will be used rather than an Additional Identifier. For example, Pig sales - local: no. sold uses the Classified Product L02140HA: Swine / pigs, local quality and Vente de moutons - locale: nb venduss uses the Classified Product L02122AP: Sheep, local quality.
Meat Production activities use the Classified Product for the meat product, e.g. P21116: Meat of goat, fresh or chilled.
Milk Production activities use the Classified Product for the raw milk, e.g. P02292: Raw milk of goats.
Butter Production activities use the Classified Product for the specific butter, e.g. P22249HC: Butter and other fats and oils derived from milk of goats.
Crop Production activities use the Classified Product for the non-seed crop, e.g. R01122: Maize (corn), other. Green consumption is also a Crop Production activity, using specific Classified Products for the green crop, e.g. R01290HA: Green corn (maize).
Livelihood Category
Standard: Custom taxonomy developed specifically for the HEA Database, informed by local knowledge and existing classifications where possible.
Owner: Save The Children
Editors: Save The Children
Description: This metadata type categorizes the primary livelihood zone types, such as Pastoral, Rain-fed AgroPastoral, etc. It includes but is not limited to pastoral and agricultural categories. Livelihood Categories are defined based on regional economic activities and ecological characteristics.
Product
Standard: Central Product Classification (CPC) Version 2.1
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: FEWS NET Hub
Description: Products are categorized using the CPC Version 2.1, facilitating uniform classification of goods and services.
The HEA database uses version 2.1 of the CPC hierarchy, as recommended by FSIN. Note that currently FDW is using version 2.0, so there are some discrepancies. The HEA database stores the `cpcv2` as a multi-valued correspondence code that matches the value in FDW. The primary key in the HEA database is just called `cpc`.
The leaf node of the main CPC hierarchy is used where that is appropriately specific. Where the main CPC hierarchy is not sufficiently specific then a leaf node from the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW) is used instead, if one exists. These nodes contain a 2-letter suffix to the main CPC code, typically starting with A, e.g. P21393AA: Cassava Chips. If FDW does not contain a suitable product, then a new leaf node with a suffix beginning with H is created in the HEA database, e.g. R01219HA: Other leafy or stem vegetables, dark green.
The FEWS NET Hub will create new Products on request.
Season
Standard: Custom taxonomy developed specifically for the HEA Database, based on similar information stored in FDW.
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: Save the Children
Description: A division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and associated livelihood zone activities for income generation. The seasons are identified based on local climatic patterns and their impact on livelihood activities.
Typically the Seasons for a Country are organized such that they cover a 12 month period and have an alias for Season 1 or Season that can be used to find the season that corresponds to that set of livelihood activities from the Baseline Storage Sheets (BSS).
At the moment, our ability to recognize Season 1 and Season 2 using aliases depends on there only being one set of Seasons for a Country. In places where this is not true, like Ethiopia and Nigeria, the BSS will need to be corrected (in bulk) in order to recognize the correct season. Alternatively, we can use a single global Season 1 and Season 2 which will be less effort but removes the opportunity to match the Season 1 and Season 2 income and consumption to actual dates in the reference year.
Source Organization
Standard: Centrally maintained list
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: FEWS NET Hub
Description: There are currently only two approved Source Organizations: FEWS NET and Save the Children. The FEWS NET Hub controls this metadata item because changes to it typically have implications for user accounts and permissions management.
Wealth Group Category
Standard: Custom taxonomy developed specifically for the HEA Database, informed by local knowledge and existing classifications where possible.
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: FEWS NET Hub
Description: Local definitions of wealth groups, common to all Baseline Studies in a Livelihood Zone (LHZ), such as Very Poor, Poor, Medium, Better Off. These categories help in understanding the economic stratification within communities.
Although this is a custom taxonomy, it contains only a small number of items, and changes to the list are rare. Therefore it is appropriate for the FEWS NET Hub to control changes to the list, particularly because they may have impacts on the application code.
Wealth Group Characteristic
Standard: Custom taxonomy developed specifically for the HEA Database, informed by local knowledge and existing classifications where possible.
Owner: FEWS NET Hub
Editors: Save the Children
Description: Characteristics of a Wealth Group, such as "Number of children at school", livestock ownership, land size, etc. These characteristics provide detailed insights into the assets and vulnerabilities of different wealth groups.
Save the Children will create new items on this list as required to enable the BSS to be fully recognized. The Hub will conduct periodic reviews to ensure that the metadata standards are being followed. The Hub will provide recommendations on new items on request.
Many of the BSSs use wealth characteristic labels on the ‘WB’ worksheet like “Other (Fishing Gear)” or “Other (Fruit Trees)”. They also contain a mixture of singular (television, motorcycle, kiosk) and plural (hoes, avocado trees, oxcarts).
The Wealth Group Characteristic metadata will be standardized to use the singular version, without the “Other. I.e. if the BSS has the label “Other (Fruit Trees)”, the corresponding Wealth Characteristic will be “Fruit Tree”.
The list of aliases for the Wealth Characteristic will contain all of the variations found in BSSs that contain that Characteristic, e.g.
name = 'Fruit Tree'
aliases = [
'fruit trees',
'other fruit trees - type',
'tree for fruits (mangoes, orange, jack, avocado etc)'
]
Livestock Wealth Group Characteristics use the Classified Products to enable easy matching against other data such as market prices.
Trees do not use the Classified Products, because the existing hierarchy does not include trees as an obvious branch, and because the Baseline Surveys are not always specific about the types of tree owned (e.g. trees, or fruit trees). They are closer to assets like oxcarts or motorcycles than they are to products and services. Therefore, trees are separate Wealth Characteristics. Note that the fruit of the trees, e.g. Avocados or Mangoes do already have corresponding Classified Products and those Products are used in the Crop Production livelihood activities to capture income from the sale of fruit and calories from consumption of it. This makes sense because we have other CPC-coded data that we can cross-reference the fruit too, most importantly current price data.