Before You Start

1. Before You Start#

World Bank country-level geospatial data hubs are collaborative platforms where teams reliably find, use, update, and reuse project-ready geospatial evidence. Before creating your Hub, work through these steps to ensure it meets real operational needs.

1.1. Define Your Purpose#

A Hub should solve a specific problem for your country or CMU. Start by answering:

  • What problem does this Hub solve? (e.g., “Fragmented datasets across email, Teams, and SharePoint”)

  • What decisions will it support? (e.g., “Project teams selecting sites for interventions”)

  • Who benefits? (e.g., “CMU staff, task teams, and UN partner organizations”)

Note

Write a one-sentence purpose statement. Example: “This Hub provides curated, maintained geospatial data for the Nigeria CMU to support project planning, monitoring, and partner collaboration.”

1.2. Know Your Users#

World Bank Hubs typically serve three user types with different needs:

User Type

Role Examples

What They Need

Technical users

GIS analysts, data analsyts, and quantiative economists

API access, bulk downloads, ETL pipelines, notebooks

Operational users

TTLs, project managers

Fast access to authoritative layers, minimal overhead, clear project numbers

Management users

CMU leadership, practice managers

High-level summaries, aggregated views, consistent storylines

For each user group, consider:

  • Role: What is their job function?

  • Goal: What do they need to accomplish?

  • Content needs: API access, data downloads, dashboards, summary maps?

  • Technical level: Coding workflows or point-and-click?

1.3. Plan Your Content#

Organize your catalog around operational needs, not just data themes.

Recommended catalog structure:

Category

Examples

Purpose

Foundational data

Admin boundaries, settlement extents, basemaps

Core reference layers everyone needs

Thematic layers

Health, education, infrastructure, poverty, hazards

Sector-specific analysis

Operational layers

Project footprints, assessments, field validation outputs

Active project support

Products

Dashboards, apps, story maps, static exports

Ready-to-use outputs

Templates

Dashboard templates, map series, notebook pipelines

Reusable assets for rapid deployment

Questions to answer:

  • What content exists today in ArcGIS Online?

  • What needs to be created, migrated, or linked from external sources?

  • What can be shared publicly vs. organization-only vs. restricted groups?

  • How often does each item need updating? Can updates be automated?

1.4. Establish Ownership#

Hubs require ongoing maintenance to stay useful. Assign clear responsibilities. Examples:

Role

Responsibility

Hub Steward

Governance, priorities, permissions, strategic direction

Data Curator

Dataset QA, metadata standards, coordinates with CMU and GPs to curate data

Important

Hubs without clear ownership become outdated quickly. In small Hubs, one person may fill multiple roles—but someone must be accountable.

Maintenance cadence:

  • Monthly: Catalog health sweep (broken links, outdated descriptions, missing tags)

  • After major events: Promote validated operational layers to curated sets; capture templates and lessons learned

1.5. Plan Your Workflow#

WB Hubs work best with a staging workflow between raw sources and published content:

Stage

Purpose

Working ground

Iterative validation, multi-source reconciliation

Curated catalog

Authoritative, maintained datasets ready for use

This intermediate layer enables real operational iteration rather than static archiving.

1.6. Technical Requirements#

Ensure you have what you need before starting.

Required:

  • Understand country geospatial needs and main users

  • Appoint appropriate point of content for hub management and development

  • Content ready to publish, or a plan to create it

Recommended:

  • Tagging standards agreed (Scorecard Outcome Areas, country/CMU identifiers)

  • Stakeholder approval for data collectoin and curation

  • List of initial products to be created (data explorer dashboard, etc…)

1.7. Metadata Standards#

Every item in your Hub should have:

  • Clear title and description (what it is, why it matters, limitations)

  • Source/provenance (system, partner, date)

  • Update cadence (manual vs. automated, expected frequency)

  • Geography and admin levels covered

  • Tags: Scorecard Outcome Area(s), Country/CMU, foundational_data if applicable

For detailed tagging guidance, see the Tagging Guidelines chapter.

1.8. Quick Start Checklist#

Use this checklist to confirm you’re ready:

  • Purpose statement written (1-2 sentences)

  • User types identified with their specific needs

  • Content inventory completed and categorized

  • Hub Steward assigned

  • Maintenance cadence agreed

  • ArcGIS Online account access verified

  • Creator license confirmed

1.9. Next Steps#

Once you’ve completed this planning, proceed to Sign In to ArcGIS Online to access ArcGIS Online with your World Bank credentials.

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