Building a Sustainable Cashew Sector in West Africa Through Data and Collaboration

Cashew-IN project came to an end in August 2024 after four years of working with government agencies, producers, traders, processors, and development partners in the five implementing countries to co-create an online tool aimed to inform, support, promote, and strengthen Africa’s cashew industry.
This blog outlines some of the key project highlights, including some of the challenges we faced, lessons learned, success stories, and identified opportunities for a more competitive cashew sector in West Africa.

Launching a Partnership Matching Service for Nonprofits

While a lot of us have talked about the potential, value, and – in some cases – need for more mergers and acquisitions in the non-profit space, recent events have made it clear: now is the time.
That’s why the teams at Accountability Lab, Development Gateway: An IREX Venture and Digital Public, partnered up to develop both a new toolkit, a partnership matching service, and professional support infrastructure aimed at assisting the organizations facing this challenge.

Unlocking Africa’s Agricultural Potential: Introducing the Soil Nutrient Roadmap

For over a decade, Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG) has been at the forefront of digital agriculture, leveraging agricultural data to support input monitoring, value chain analysis, and farmer-centric governance models. With funding from the Gates Foundation, DG is launching the Soil Nutrient Roadmap (SNR), a cutting-edge initiative using geospatial data to estimate current and future soil and crop nutrient requirements.

Digital Transformation for Public Value: Development Gateway’s Insights from Agriculture & Open Contracting

In today’s fast-evolving world, governments and public organizations are under more pressure than ever before to deliver efficient, transparent services that align with public expectations. In this blog, we delve into the key concepts behind digital transformation and how it can enhance public value by promoting transparency, informing policy, and supporting evidence-based decision-making.

From Data Gaps to Impact: Key Insights from the VIFAA Program

Over the last six years, DG, together with its partners AfricaFertilizer (AFO) and Wallace & Associates, collaborated to implement the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) Program. In the program’s final year (2024), the team undertook a “program learning process” to reflect on outcomes, challenges, and successes through internal interviews. This blog captures five key learnings, which we hope will guide similar programs aiming to bridge data gaps in agricultural development.

Diving into the DaYTA Program’s Data Collection Process

This blog explores key insights from the DaYTA program, offering practical guidance for researchers on effective data collection, overcoming field challenges, and leveraging local partnerships to enhance tobacco control efforts. This piece is especially timely following DaYTA’s workshop convening all 3 study country stakeholders to review the survey results and strategize on how best to disseminate this data to target audiences. This workshop took place from in Lagos, Nigeria, from November 18-20th.

Demystifying interoperability: Key takeaways from our new white paper

This blog post gives an overview on our latest paper on interoperability, implementing interoperable solutions in partnership with public administrations. Based on over 20 years of DG’s experience, the paper demystifies key components needed to build robust, resilient, and interoperable data systems, focusing on the “how” of data standardization, data governance, and implementing technical infrastructure.

Mythbusters: Digital Public Infrastructure & Digital Public Goods

Although the international community has just now reached consensus on what digital public infrastructure is, there are still a lot of myths and misperceptions around the term, and the open-source technology that often powers it. In this blog, we’ll debunk some common myths we hear about DPI with facts, highlight some successes and failures, and show you some of the open-source DPI tools we’re following.

Enhancing Livestock Traceability in Ethiopia with Mobile Tech

Ethiopia has the largest livestock population in Africa. To support the effective management of this vast sector, Development Gateway, through the aLIVE program, is working to enhance key livestock information systems for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture. Read more.