Introduction¶

The KDW Data Warehouse (Price) - KDW-P is a web application for entering and analysing food and commodity price data utilizing Product and Unit of Measure codings that facilitate comparing products across countries.  With built-in functionality for converting into common currencies and weights, you can view multiple price series from different countries across the globe in the local currency, or expressed in user-defined common currency (e.g. USD). The purpose of the KDW-P is to improve data, information and knowledge management for KDW Field, Regional and Home Offices. The KDW-P gives you the ability to download your data, so that you can carry out your analyses in an offline setting using Excel or other software. This can be an advantage when internet connections are unstable.

The price component is only one of many sections of the Data Warehouse.  Other sections include Nutrition, Agricultural Production, and Livelihoods, that is, studying the ways in which people obtain food and income and engage in trade. You can think of the system as a collection of related Data Warehouses built on a common foundation.

The system is designed to improve data, information and knowledge management for Field, Regional and Home Offices, including:

• Easier data collection and consolidation

• Improved data quality

• More efficient production of standard reports

• New tools to support online and offline ad hoc analysis

This User Manual covers the collection and management of Market Price data using the Data Warehouse.

The system uses standard Product and Unit of Measure codes and has built-in functionality for converting into currencies and units allowing you to compare data from multiple countries and display prices in a currency and unit of measure of your choice. The Data Warehouse provides both online and offline analysis tools, including the refreshable Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that can automatically fetch the latest data, to enable offline working when internet connections are unstable.