Common Operational Datasets (CODs)

Special note about COD use versus COD development

Since about 2020 COD administrative boundary development has evolved to be less of a burden on a wide group of stakeholders and more focused on OCHA Regional and Country Offices, while more and more strategically required CODs have become available and routinely updated. At the same time population statistics COD development became the responsivity of UNFPA. The emphasis of the IM Toolbox has therefore moved away from COD development roles and responsibilities and toward humanitarian COD use. The exception is the section describing development of Country-specific CODs which can be identified and launched by field teams at short notice.

CODs

are authoritative reference datasets needed to support operations and decision-making for all actors in a humanitarian response.
pertain to a recognized country or territory¹.
are standardized datasets that are commonly used and referenced by all operations.
are of four types²:
reflect the local hierarchical administrative structure,² are annotated with place names and P-codes, and are generally accompanied by a tabular gazetteer.
are best available datasets that ensure consistency and simplify the management of key data.
are accepted in country³ or in their region by the relevant Information Management Working Group.
are catalogued at the COD Portal [LINK SUBJECT TO CHANGE SOON].
are disseminated at the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX); COD-AB and COD-EM datasets are also available as live GIS geoservices.
enable consistency and harmonization among actors working on humanitarian preparedness and response by providing:
- a common operational picture of the crisis
- a geographic framework (P-codes) for data collection, analysis, and visualization.
are available in two quality classifications:
- ‘enhanced CODs’ with full quality control, compatibility, and reliability
- ‘standard CODs’ not yet fully quality controlled.
facilitate informed decision making both pre- and post-crisis.
reduce duplication of work on baseline data by partnering organizations.
strengthen valuable humanitarian networks and relationships.
drive API look-up information

¹ CODs are generally prepared for sovereign states recognized by the UN Secretariat, but in some cases reflect sub-national territories. For example, there are CODs for Sint Maarten, which is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but not for Taiwan, which is not a recognized member state.

2 Previously a ‘Humanitarian Profile’ COD-HP type existed, which presented tabular People-in-Need information derived from Humanitarian Needs Overviews. This information is now provided in country-specific ‘Humanitarian Needs’ (non-COD) datasets disseminated in HDX by OCHA Humanitarian Programme Cycle Tools (HPC Tools). For further information see HPC Tools.

¹ Except some COD-CS datasets [????]

HDX datasets contain ‘Data and Resources’ and ‘Metadata’. The Data and Resources are the actual files (shapefiles, spreadsheets, etc.) or external links (ITOS live geoservices) comprising a COD. Resources can be individually downloaded.