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FEWS NET IDs (FNIDs)

Owned by Allison Nederveld
Last updated: Jun 28, 2024
2 min read

FEWS NET assigns FNIDs to new administrative units. Having a unique identifier for every administrative unit allows the query of specific administrative units. FEWS NET uses Microsoft Excel to organize the administration units and to create the FNIDs. 

FEWS NET uses four types of shapefiles:

  • Administration Units (A codes)

  • Crop Regions (R codes)

  • Livelihood Zones (L code)

  • Food Security Classification Units (C codes)

All polygons are assigned a unique alpha-numeric FNID. The structure of these codes is explained below: 

Code Element 

Places Needed

Description 

Code Element 

Places Needed

Description 

ISO_CODE

2 Digits

Standard ISO 2-digit country code

Version (year)

4 Digits

The effective year of the geographic unit set version

Type

1 Digit (letter)

A=Admin unit, C= Food security classification, L= Livelihood Zone, R= Crop region 

Unit level

1 Digit

This is the location in the geographic unit hierarchy. For example, A3 is the type and level of an Admin 3 unit.

Level codes

2 Digits per level

Each level is represented by two digits (e.g., 00, 01, 13). At each level, each unit must have a unique ID. Apply this process for as many levels as necessary. See Example 1 below.

Example 1: Level codes

To create the last part of an FNID, you will need to combine the codes for each relevant level. For example, if you are creating a code for an Admin 3 unit, you will need to combine codes for Admin levels 1, 2, and 3.

Note the following in the image below:

  1. Every Admin 1 has its own ID. e.g., Tigray is 01 and Afar is 02

  2. Every Admin 2 that falls within an Admin 1 has a unique ID. e.g., Zone 3 is 03, Zone 4 is 04.

  3. ID numbering resets when a unit falls under a new unit at the previous level. e.g., Admin 2 ID go from 05 for Zone 5 to 01 for North Gondar because the Admin 1 unit changed from Afar to Amhara.

  4. Admin 1 and Admin 2 codes combine to create an Admin 2 ID. e.g., for Oromia, the Admin 1 code is 03, the Admin 2 code is 10. These combine into an Admin 2 ID of 0310. This process should be applied to all necessary levels.

image-20240618-165719.png
Example of FNID spreadsheet

Example 2: Creating a C-type FNID in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, FEWS NET maps FIC data using the intersection of Admin 2 (districts) and livelihood zones. The FNIDs for these intersect units are structured as follows: 

  • Country: AF

  • Year: 2018 

  • Type: C

  • Level: 3 

  • Kabul admin 2 code: 0101

  • LHZ code: AF08

These are combined to create the following FNID: AF2018C3010108.