Frequently Asked Questions

Rescue Data Labs is an open data platform focused exclusively on South Sudan. We are building the infrastructure to collect, organize, visualize, and provide downloadable statistics covering national, state, administrative area, and county-level data across 10 topic areas including population, health, education, economy, and more, as verified data becomes available.

Yes — that's our policy for whatever data we publish. Rescue Data Labs has not yet published any verified datasets; once we do, they'll be free to access, explore, and download under open licenses such as the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) and Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). We believe open data is essential for South Sudan's development.

The platform serves researchers, journalists, students, NGOs, businesses, government institutions, development partners, and any citizen interested in understanding South Sudan through data. We design for both expert data users and the general public.

Rescue Data Labs is supported by grants from international development partners, open data foundations, and in-kind contributions from volunteers. Full funding transparency is available on our Funding page.

We have not published any verified datasets yet. Planned sources include the South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, FAO, UNDP, and other UN agencies. We'll only display a specific source once we've actually verified and published data from it, with clear attribution.

Once a dataset is published, it will be updated as new verified information becomes available from its source — some datasets annually, others quarterly or ad-hoc. Each dataset will show a "Last Updated" date for transparency.

The platform covers South Sudan at three levels: National (country-wide), State (all 10 states and 3 administrative areas), and County (all 78 counties). Future updates will add Payam and Boma levels.

Absolutely. We welcome contributions and corrections. If you have data to share or notice an error, please contact us at info@rescuedatalabs.org or submit an issue on our GitHub repository.

Yes. Our data is published under open licenses specifically to support research and analysis. We ask that you cite the original data source and Rescue Data Labs as the platform. Each dataset page includes citation information.

The download tools (CSV export, PNG chart export) are built and ready, but there are no verified datasets published yet to download. Once real data is added, every dataset will include a CSV download option, and charts can be exported as PNG images. Future releases will add Excel (XLSX), PDF, and SVG export formats.

Yes. Rescue Data Labs is designed mobile-first, meaning it works well on smartphones and tablets even with slow internet connections. The platform also works as a Progressive Web App (PWA), which can be installed on your device for offline access to previously viewed pages.

Navigate to the Data Explorer page, select a topic, then an indicator, and optionally filter by geography. You can view data as interactive charts (line, bar, area, or ranking), compare multiple states or counties, and download your results as CSV or PNG.

The SDG Tracker monitors South Sudan's progress toward all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It shows overall status (On Track, Moderate Progress, Off Track, or Insufficient Data) for each goal, with detailed progress indicators and trend analysis.

A search API endpoint is available for autocomplete suggestions. A full data API is in development and will be released in a future update. Follow us for announcements.

Visit our Latest Data page regularly, follow us on Twitter (@rescuedatalabs), check the Reports section for new publications, or submit a data request through our contact email.