The COVID19 Mobility Analytics Task Force has worked to support countries with analytics on mobility to inform policies for preventing the spread of COVID-19. It formed partnerships with Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and government institutions to process and analyze location data. Development Economics Vice Presidency (DEC) collaborated across multiple WBG units including Digital Development, Water, Legal, Information Technology (IT) and Country Management Units (CMUs), allowing for a unique combination of the Bank’s analytical and operational expertise to help support the COVID-19 response.

Mobility has been shown to be critical for spread of COVID-19; therefore, country strategies can be more effective if guided by population mobility data. MNOs produce data based on subscriber phone use that can be aggregated in a privacy preserving way to measure the location of populations and their movement within a country. The activity supported systematic analysis of these data and included 4 main components:

Indicator Development: The team worked to develop open-source code for simple indicators that can be produced from mobile phone data.

Dashboards for Indicator Visualization: They developed a country dashboard that could allow a policymaker to focus on areas of interest or to see how a new policy has affected mobility patterns.

Capacity Building: The team has held workshops with project teams and policymakers to disseminate insights generated from the mobile phone data that could support them in their COVID-19 response. They also held trainings on how to produce and utilize the analytics with a view to support more sustainable use of mobility data in future policy planning.

Analytical Outputs: The team produced blogs, academic papers, open source code and training materials to ensure the furthest reach and impact possible. The open source code can allow others to produce the indicators, data quality checks and dashboard, and combined with trainings of in-country counterparts, will help to expand the utility of this project and applicability to future crises.

Team

• Sveta Milusheva is an Economist in the Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) unit at the World Bank. She coordinates the ieConnect program of impact evaluations focused on transport investments and within this program leads the work on urban mobility. Her research interests include infrastructure and information & communication technologies, population mobility, health and gender. In particular, her work focuses on the application of new big data sources, such as mobile phone data and crowdsourced data, to study questions in development and evaluate the impact of development interventions. She received her PhD and MA in Economics from Brown University and her BA in Economics and International Studies from Emory University.
• Trevor Monroe is a Program Manager with the Analytics and Tools unit that resides within the Development Economics Data Group. Trevor leads strategic initiatives that improve organizational capabilities to put data into action through collaboration and partnership, technical and capacity support. Currently, he is leading the “Innovations in Big Data Analytics” program, which works to accelerate the use of non-traditional data in World Bank research and operations. Prior to the World Bank, Trevor held positions at the Progressive Policy Institute, Vital Wave Consulting, Development Gateway and Lucent Technologies.
• Dunstan Matekenya is a Data Scientist in the Development Data Group at the World BAnk. at the World Bank Group. His PhD research at the University of Tokyo focused on the use of machine learning methods to explore insights from mobile phone data. Prior to the World Bank, Dunstan worked as a Statistician at the National Statistical Office in Malawi (2007-2017). Dunstan is focused on the modernization of official statistics in developing countries through the use of alternative data sources such as mobile phone data and works to improve data science capacity in developing countries.
• Tania Begazo is Senior Economist at the Digital Development practice. Tania oversees major economic policy and research initiatives related to digital infrastructure and policy to inform thought leadership, corporate strategy and operational engagements with clients, with emphasis on Africa. She supports dissemination of knowledge on digital development and contributes to the formulation and implementation of country operations targeted at reforms in the digital sector, building on collaboration within the World Bank Group and external partners.
• Anat Lewin is a Senior Digital Development Specialist at the World Bank, where she leads policy advice and investment lending activities in Cybersecurity, Data Governance, Data Protection and Digital Government in Eastern and Southern Africa. She advises developing country governments on establishing good practice Cybersecurity, Data Governance and Data Protection policies, strategies, institutional governance frameworks, technical and operational capabilities and digital skills programs. Anat holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Toronto in Canada, Trinity College. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2000, Anat worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Ethiopia.
• Leonardo Viotti is a Data Scientist specializing in impact evaluation and geospatial data. Leonardo works with the the ieConnect program at the Development Impact Evaluation department (DIME) in the World Bank Group, which focuses on impact evaluations of transport investments, as well as other data intensive development projects. His research interests are in the application of econometrics, AI, computer vision and big Data analytics to tackle development challenges.