Using the Reference Data spreadsheet

The Reference Data spreadsheet contains labels, aliases, and other information for products, wealth characteristics, activities, etc.

Adding a new product

Find the product in the UN CPC v2.1 classification. Determine how you will code it; this may require a decision. For example, lait achete' (pourde) means purchased milk (powder). There is no indication if it is skim or whole milk powder. We can use 2221 for all powdered milk or assume it is whole milk and use 22211.

Add the following at a minimum:

• cpc: This should exactly match what is in the CPCv2.1 document.

• description_en: This should exactly match what is in the CPCv2.1 document.

• common_name_en

• aliases: The common name should also be listed as the first alias to protect against changes in the future.

Unit of measure and kcal/unit can be found in the BSS if they are applicable.

Adding an activity label

Adding an activity label to the database provides a way for us to force particular labels from a BSS to be recognized as containing specific metadata. They ensure that we can process BSSs with almost any text. However, they should be considered as the mechanism of last resort, and only used when other approaches have failed because the label itself has a non-standard structure.

The exact error message reported by the pipeline should indicate one of the following:

• The structure is recognized but the product, unit of measure, or wealth characteristic isn’t.

  • If the label has a standard structure, but refers to a new product or unit of measure then the product or unit should be added to the classified product or unit of measure reference data worksheet instead.

  • If the label has a standard structure, but an alternative spelling of an existing product/unit/wealth characteristic, etc. then the alternative spelling should be added as an alias instead.

• No matching structure at all was found. An Activity Label or Wealth Characteristic Label may be required.

At a minimum, add the items listed in the table below, other than product_name and unit_of_measure_id which may not be available for an activity label.

Leave strategy_type blank as it will be auto-populated.