Annual Plan for Revisions to FEWS NET Data Management Platform_IY3

The Hub's client, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has approved the vision and framework for the DMP, which remains solid. The Hub proposes no major changes in the four fundamental design principles that led to defining the DMP: data that are secure, open, intuitive, and available. The two technical pillars that undergird the platform, System and Content, also remain unchanged. The nature of the activities and tasks for Implementation Year Three (IY3) will change, reflecting substantial improvements in the platform during Implementation Year Two (IY2) as well as emerging opportunities in IY3. Notable factors influencing the evolution of the strategic focus on the FEWS NET data platform include the findings of the Country Case Study, which inform improvements in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW), online reporting, visualizations, and the data inventory process. Additionally, there is a greater demand for Hub services by FEWS NET implementing partners, USAID staff, and external food security partners. The USAID Chief Information Office's focus on the timely design and implementation of a FEWS NET Data Management Plan is also a significant factor. Furthermore, the anticipated revision of the FEWS NET website from the legacy Drupal 7 content management system (CMS) to the much more modern Drupal 9 environment will radically expand the Hub's options for creating and publishing online visualizations. A broadening and deepening of collaboration processes within the FEWS NET implementation team, facilitated by the IY2 launch of the Joint Annual Work Planning process, will also contribute to the evolution of the strategic focus on the FEWS NET data platform. During Implementation Year One (IY1), the Hub team developed critical infrastructure and services needed to enhance the DMP's efficiency and prominence, such as data inventory dashboards and new data domains. In IY2, the Hub benefited from rich collaboration with other FEWS NET implementing partners to fine-tune those new IY1 elements to better meet stakeholder needs. The Hub also focused on exploring, prototyping, and testing new online applications to move the project technologically forward. In the upcoming implementation year, the Hub's strategic focus will be on turning the best of these prototypes into online FDW and website applications for data uploading, exploration, and extraction. The Hub expects to deliver expanded use of KoboToolbox for archiving existing primary data as well as collecting primary data for both internal and external stakeholders. Automated data ingestion from additional data sources via external REST APIs will also be implemented. Additional data domains in FDW as identified and prioritized by the data inventory activity lead by USAID in IY2 will be added. Interactive, web-based visualizations that implement the revised FEWS NET brand will be deployed as part of the FEWS NET website when an updated CMS such as Drupal 9 is available. Improved performance for data extracts via the REST API resulting from the adoption of new columnar on in-memory database technologies will also be achieved. In parallel, the Hub will work in close concert with FEWS NET implementing partners to develop the processes and documentation required to allow a growing number of users to access and add to DMP content. By the end of IY3, FEWS NET's DMP should be at once more functional and user-friendly, with more data available to a larger community of users. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) Learning and Data Hub (Hub) Task Order (TO) 1, under the FEWS NET Pillar 2 Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity contract (IDIQ) implemented by Kimetrica LLC, has the specific objective to manage, share, and facilitate the application of FEWS NET data, information, and knowledge to help achieve FEWS NET's mission to sustainably prevent food insecurity and famine. During Implementation Years One and Two (IY1 and IY2, respectively), the Hub coordinated across a constellation of implementing partners, which include the FEWS NET Early Warning and Science teams. The Hub captures, documents, and shares the wealth of FEWS NET analytical products, datasets, methodologies, and learning through three technical workstreams: the Data Management Platform (DMP), the Website Platform, and the Knowledge and Learning (K&L) Workstream. Of the three workstreams, the DMP facilitates USAID's vision for broader use of FEWS NET data as unique global public goods, in addition to creating data visualizations. The Hub designed the DMP to address four major activities identified in the Hub's TO 1, namely: managing and improving the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW), making FEWS NET food security-related data more accessible for FEWS NET 7 Team members, making FEWS NET data accessible to Non-FEWS NET Users and Uses Outside of the FEWS NET 7 Team, and making FEWS NET