ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of spatially analyzing a large household dataset to produce maps of human vulnerability to livelihood shocks in the country of Niger in West Africa. This analysis was conducted for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a larger decision-making process to determine how to better understand the nexus of development and conflict in the Sahel. USAID’s recent push to use open, publicly available data and the unclassified nature of the “development game” led us to use a very large household survey dataset. The chapter reviews the relevant literature on livelihoods, vulnerability, and poverty mapping. Poverty mapping is a relatively straightforward concept that generally involves the “measuring of incidence of poverty and food security in some predetermined area”. The use of large datasets and scientifically validated statistical techniques helps legitimatize the outcomes of such research in the minds of policy makers.
