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bblocks

Building Blocks for development data work

bblocks is a growing collection of Python packages designed to simplify the everyday work of analysts and researchers in the international development sector. Built with usability and modularity in mind, bblocks provides reliable, reusable components that help standardize and streamline data workflows—from data cleaning and transformation to country concordance, dataset importation, and integration with ETL pipelines such as Data Commons.

Whether you're wrangling data for a quick analysis or developing a robust, production-ready pipeline, bblocks offers practical, tested tools that are easy to plug into your workflow and scale with your needs.

Why use bblocks?

In international organizations and NGO data teams, it’s common to face the same challenges again and again:

  • Harmonizing country and region names
  • Cleaning inconsistently formatted data
  • Fetching public datasets
  • Validating data before publication or use

Too often, these solutions are hidden in personal scripts or scattered across notebooks, making them hard to maintain, reuse, or share across teams. bblocks was built to change that. It brings these common utilities into one well-structured, tested, and reusable ecosystem of packages. What does bblocks offer?

Consistency — Shared methods and standards across teams and projects

Efficiency — Save time by avoiding repetitive coding tasks

Maintainability — Centralized improvements benefit all users instantly

Scalability — Suitable for quick analysis or production-level pipelines

By turning one-off scripts into durable components, bblocks helps you build a cleaner, more reliable data foundation for all your work.

Who Is bblocks for?

bblocks is designed for:

  • Data Analysts & Researchers - Working with development data who need dependable tools for cleaning, transforming, and analyzing datasets.
  • Data Engineers - Integrating standardized components into larger data workflows and pipelines with built-in validation and structure.
  • Policy & Advocacy Teams - Needing fast, reliable access to clean and harmonized data for briefings, reports, and campaigns.
  • Development Organizations & NGOs - Seeking to strengthen internal data workflows, ensure quality, and reduce duplicated effort.