An Introduction to Aid Data

Curriculum

6 Sections
35 Lessons
Lifetime

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Introduction to aid data
Welcome to the world of aid data! In this first module, we’ll be starting from first principles: what do we actually mean when we say ‘aid’, and why is looking at aid data important?
5
A guide to IATI data
One major source of aid data is made available through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). There are a few different ways that you can access raw IATI data, so here’s a quick run through of what you can get, and where it is, including IATI data itself as well as data about IATI data (metadata).
6
Cleaning IATI data with OpenRefine
So once you've got the raw IATI data, what next? Often it might need 'cleaning' - here, we'll use a sample IATI dataset to learn how to use a powerful cleaning tool, OpenRefine.
5
An introduction to OECD-DAC data
Another major source of data available about international development data, is the OECD. Here, we run through a few ways that they make this data available, and where to find what you're looking for.
8
Inspiration module: how is aid data used in the media?
We've seen a few ways of where to find aid data, how to clean it and use it - but how is this applied in the real world? Here are a couple of examples of 'reverse engineering' aid data that we might come across in the media - maybe it will give you some ideas!
6
Jargon busting the world of aid
This module is intended as a reference point while you're going through the other modules. In each case, the relevance of the term to working specifically with data is highlighted to try and make it clear what you should be looking out for when you come across the term in your work.
5

Introduction

Why might data need “cleaning” anyway? We say the data needs cleaning when it has inconsistencies that make it difficult to work with; although it might already be in a spreadsheet, there are lots of ways that it could actually be “dirty” data.

For example, when dates are written in different formats in the same spreadsheet: 21st October, or 21/10/13, or Oct. 21. Or, when names are spelt slightly differently, but actually mean the same thing. All of these things (whether by human error, or machine) – make it very hard to analyse the data. As lots of IATI data has been processed by hand, little inconsistencies are common within the files you find in the IATI registry, and before you can properly work with it, it needs to be cleaned.

So, here is an introduction to a powerful data cleaning tool, which is free to download.

Objectives:

Understand why IATI data might need ‘cleaning’
Learn familiarity with the data cleaning tool Open Refine
Work with IATI data (downloaded as CSV from the IATI registry)

Prerequisites/before you get started:

Basic understanding of spreadsheets
Basic understanding of what IATI data shows
Understanding of what a CSV is

What you’ll need:

Refine – Download it from http://openrefine.org. If you’re downloading it using a Mac, there might be a bug, telling you:
“Google Refine” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash.”

To get around this problem, follow these instructions:

Open System Preferences
Open Security & Privacy
Go to the General Tab
Change the “Allow applications downloaded from:” setting to “Anywhere”

(This appears to be a security issue with Mountain Lion, but the above steps provide a workaround until it is fixed by Google.)

Further Resources