TDXieConnect for Impact
Impact evaluation evidence + tools
ieConnect for Impact (World Bank DIME)
Repository: World Bank Development Impact Evaluation (DIME) + Transport Global Practice URL: https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/unit-dec/impactevaluation/partnerships/ieconnect DIME Transport: https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/unit-dec/impactevaluation/programs/Transport GitHub: https://github.com/dime-worldbank (62 repos) | https://github.com/WorldBank-Transport (50 repos) License: Code: MIT/open source | Microdata: Restricted access (per-dataset) Funding: FCDO (~$17.6M since 2015), EU, others — total ~$40M programme
What This Dataset Is
ieConnect is not a single dataset — it's a World Bank impact evaluation programme that produces diverse datasets from 30+ transport evaluations across 23+ countries, covering $5.7B in transport investments. It generates ground-truth evidence on what transport investments actually achieve.
Unlike the other datasets in this folder (which are continuous, API-accessible data platforms), ieConnect produces evaluation-specific datasets from individual studies. Its value for a global transport intelligence system is:
- Causal evidence on transport investment outcomes (the only source providing this)
- Innovative data fusion methods combining satellite, mobile phone, survey, and sensor data
- Open-source tools for transport analysis (RAM, ietoolkit)
- FCDO funding alignment — already funded by the same organisation
Thematic Areas
| Area | Focus | Example Evaluations |
|---|---|---|
| Urban Mobility | BRT, congestion, transit pricing | Dar es Salaam BRT, Dakar BRT/TER, Nairobi |
| Development Corridors | Economic growth from road connectivity | Mozambique (6 corridors), others |
| Road Safety | Crash reduction interventions | Multiple countries |
| Rural Roads | Market access, agricultural productivity | Tanzania RISE project (Iringa) |
| Gender | Differential transport impacts on women | Cross-cutting |
| Climate | Climate-resilient transport | Added post-2020 |
Data Types Produced
ieConnect evaluations produce heterogeneous data. The typical outputs:
Household/Firm Survey Data
| Field Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Demographics | Household size, income, education |
| Travel patterns | Commute time, mode choice, trip frequency |
| Economic | Employment status, wages, business activity |
| Accessibility | Travel time to nearest market/hospital/school |
| Transport costs | Fare expenditure, fuel costs |
| Geo-reference | Village/ward GPS coordinates |
Geospatial / Remote Sensing
| Data Type | Source | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Road network analysis | OSM + government | Segment-level |
| Satellite-derived indicators | Landsat, Sentinel | 10-30m |
| Night lights | VIIRS | 500m |
| Land use change | Classification models | Varies |
| Accessibility isochrones | OSRM routing | Travel-time zones |
Big Data / Passive Collection
| Data Type | Source | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Population movement | Call Detail Records (CDR) | Daily |
| Transit ridership | Smartcard data | Per-trip |
| Travel times | GPS trackers | Continuous |
| Traffic flows | Traffic video / sensors | Real-time |
| Congestion | Mapbox / Waze (via Development Data Partnership) | Real-time |
| Mobility patterns | Veraset (anonymised) | Daily |
No Unified Schema or API
ieConnect does not have a standard data schema or API. Data is distributed across:
| Channel | Access | URL |
|---|---|---|
| World Bank Microdata Catalog | Registration + download (often restricted) | https://microdata.worldbank.org/catalog/dime |
| World Bank Data Catalog | Open for aggregated data | https://datacatalog.worldbank.org |
| GitHub repositories | Open source code + some replication data | https://github.com/dime-worldbank |
| Development Data Partnership | Mediated access to private-sector mobility data | https://datapartnership.org |
Access constraints: Many microdata datasets require an application and justification for access (IRB/ethics restrictions on household-level data).
Open-Source Tools
Analysis Tools
| Tool | Repository | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| ietoolkit | https://github.com/worldbank/ietoolkit | Stata commands for impact evaluation |
| iefieldkit | https://github.com/worldbank/iefieldkit | Primary data collection and cleaning |
| iesurveykit | https://github.com/dime-worldbank/iesurveykit | Survey-related tools |
Transport-Specific Tools
| Tool | Repository | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| RAM (Rural Accessibility Map) | https://github.com/WorldBank-Transport/ram-backend | Travel time calculations from villages to POIs using OSRM |
| DRIVER | WorldBank-Transport | Road incident visualisation and reporting |
Data Standards
| Resource | URL |
|---|---|
| DIME Standards | https://github.com/worldbank/dime-standards |
| DIME Data Handbook | https://worldbank.github.io/dime-data-handbook/ |
| DIME Wiki | https://dimewiki.worldbank.org |
Data Governance
DIME follows rigorous data security standards:
- All data encrypted at rest and in transit
- Two-stage de-identification (strip direct identifiers, then anonymise for publication)
- Standardised variable naming conventions
- Reproducible analysis code (Stata primary, R secondary)
- Primary survey platform: SurveyCTO (ODK-based)
Key Limitations for Automation
- No API — no programmatic access to evaluation data
- Project-specific schemas — each evaluation has its own data structure
- Restricted microdata — household-level data often requires application
- Temporal snapshots — evaluations run for specific periods, not continuous
- Stata-centric — primary tooling is Stata, not Python/cloud-native
- Not a monitoring system — produces evidence about interventions, not real-time intelligence
Integration Strategy
The most integrable outputs from ieConnect are:
- Aggregate indicators — accessibility scores, travel time changes, economic impact estimates can be standardised and fed into a global system
- Geospatial layers — satellite analysis, road network assessments, accessibility isochrones
- RAM tool — the Rural Accessibility Map tool is directly usable for computing access metrics globally
- Development Data Partnership model — the mechanism for accessing Mapbox, Veraset, and Waze data could be scaled for the global system
- Evaluation evidence — the "what works" evidence can inform the intelligence layer's analytical outputs (e.g., "BRT systems in cities of X size typically achieve Y% ridership increase")
Join Keys
- Country ISO codes — link to all other datasets
- GPS coordinates — available in many evaluations, enabling spatial joins to OPSIS and PortWatch
- DAC sector codes — ieConnect evaluations are funded through ODA, so they appear in CRS/IATI data (join via project numbers)
Key Contacts
- Programme lead: Sveta Milusheva (Senior Economist, DIME)
- DIME Transport page: https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/unit/unit-dec/impactevaluation/programs/Transport
- ieConnect results: https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2020/11/12/ieconnect-for-impact