Common Operational Datasets

Why CODs matter

Shared boundaries and population figures let every organization in a response refer to places the same way, so their data can be compared and combined.

Why CODs exist

In emergencies, many organizations provide relief, each in its own way, and each collects information as the response goes on: needs assessments, where partners are working, how many people have been reached. Sharing this information is how needs get identified and how gaps and duplication in assistance are avoided. It only works if every organization refers to places in the same way.

CODs give partners that common reference. When UN agencies, NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and governments use the same boundaries and population figures, their data can be compared and combined. In each country, the Information Management Working Group, made up of information managers from government, UN agencies, clusters and NGOs, adopts the CODs as the standard.

Preparedness

Decisions in the first hours and days of an emergency rely on data that already exists, so the work of gathering, managing and sharing it has to happen before a crisis. For sudden-onset emergencies, current guidance calls for CODs to be shared within 48 hours. That leaves time to check and correct them, but not to build them. If CODs have been kept up to date, the corrections are small.

  1. BeforeCODs are kept up to date
  2. Day 0The emergency starts
  3. Within 48 hoursCODs are shared, then checked and corrected
  4. ResponseAssessments, maps and the 3W use the CODs

P-codes

Linking datasets by place name causes errors. Sources spell names differently, or use another language: the Madagascar COD-AB has Amoron I Mania and Haute Matsiatra, where OpenStreetMap has Amoron’i Mania and Matsiatra Ambony. Names also repeat. In Madagascar, 81 different administrative level 4 units are called Morafeno.

The commune of Morafeno. One of its fokontany is also called Morafeno.

A P-code (place code) identifies one administrative unit. It starts with the country’s ISO3 code and adds a three-digit number for each level below, separated by dots. Units that share a name, like the commune of Morafeno and the fokontany inside it, still get different codes.

  1. MDGMadagascar
  2. MDG.011Analamanga region
  3. MDG.011.1181st arrondissement of Antananarivo, the capital
Each level adds three digits to the code of the unit above it.

Datasets that use the same P-codes can be joined directly, without matching names by hand. Each COD-AB includes a gazetteer listing every P-code with its name. The P-code format in the Standards gives the full rules.

Join by
Assessment Partner activities
Haute MatsiatraMDG.021
Matsiatra AmbonyMDG.021
Amoron I ManiaMDG.022
Amoron’i ManiaMDG.022
Joined by name: no rows match, because the names are written differently.

How CODs are used

COD-AB and COD-PS are used in every phase of the humanitarian programme cycle:

  • MapsBase layers for every map
  • AssessmentsData collected by P-code
  • AnalysisAffected population, from COD-AB and COD-PS
  • CoordinationThe Humanitarian Needs Overview and the 3W

The maps below link the two. Each COD-PS figure is attached to its COD-AB boundary by P-code, which is enough to show where people live and how age and sex vary.

Country
Map
Population density in Colombia by administrative level 2 unit, from COD-PS 2025 joined to COD-AB by P-code
  • under 10
  • 10 to 25
  • 25 to 50
  • 50 to 100
  • 100 to 300
  • 300 to 1,500
  • 1,500 and over
  • people per km², average over each unit

COD-PS population estimates joined to COD-AB administrative level 2 boundaries by P-code, for Colombia, Zimbabwe and Namibia, where every unit has a figure broken down by age and sex. Most COD-PS figures are projections from the last census, and in many countries they are published only at a higher level or use P-codes from an older version of the boundaries. Sources: COD-AB, COD-PS.

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.