Developing Data Systems: Five Issues IREX and DG Explored at Festival de Datos

IREX and Development Gateway: An IREX Venture participated in Festival de Datos from November 7-9, 2023. In this blog, Philip Davidovich, Annie Kilroy, Josh Powell, and Tom Orrell explore five key issues discussed at Festival de Datos on advancing data systems and how IREX and DG are meeting these challenges.

aLIVE Program Reaches Milestone: Livestock Data Standards Endorsed by Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture

In early 2024, the “a Livestock Information Vision Ethiopia” (aLIVE) governing committee endorsed a comprehensive set of standards to guide the collection, storage, and maintenance of livestock data in Ethiopia (i.e., a data standard). The data standard specifically focuses on standardizing data on cattle, sheep, goats, and camels in the country. The National Livestock Data Standard document contains standardized data sets for national animal data recording, animal disease, diagnosis, treatment, vaccination recording, animal events recording, location, and other additional attributes.

Three “Hacks” in Advancing Anti-Corruption Work To Strengthen Accountability

Since partnering with Accountability Lab (AL) on HackCorruption in 2023, staff from Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG) and AL have mentored teams from the hackathons hosted by the project, which is aimed at leveraging innovative digital tools to identify and fight corruption. After serving as the mentorship team for hackathon winners, DGers Gabriel Inchauspe and Kelley Sams, along with AL’s David Sada have identified three hacks in mentoring anti-corruption change-makers and ultimately, furthering transparency and accountability through the creation and use of digital tools.

DG Developing Open Source AI Tool to Help with the Fight against Corruption

We’re excited to announce our forthcoming open-source AI tool to support anti-corruption work. The tool, which we hope to register as a Digital Public Good, will be used to extract text from complicated contracts and support anti-corruption efforts by increasing accessibility of and transparency around hard-to-access information.