Posts by Beverley Hatcher-Mbu

Our work is at the intersection of open data, technological development, and strategic advising to improve data use. We see growing questions about how we as a global community manage, share, reuse, and store data that is integral to our existing and future work. This blog is the start of a conversation we want to have.

Mr. Gideon Negedu, the Executive Secretary of The Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN,) describes using rumors for planning and the importance of the VIFAA Nigeria Dashboard in evidence-based advocacy.

Professor Victor O. Chude is the Registrar/CEO of Nigeria Institute of Soil Science (NISS), where his work centers around efforts to produce and use more region and crop-specific fertilizers to increase crop yields and food security. Professor Chude describes how the newly launched VIFAA Dashboard supports his work and feeds into decision-making.

In place of unwieldy spreadsheets and dozens of sources, the VIFAA Fertilizer Dashboard introduces a “one-stop-shop” for trustworthy, visually appealing information that is key to understanding Nigeria’s fertilizer sector.

We are thrilled to announce that the Visualizing Insights for African Agriculture (VIFAA) Kenya Fertilizer Dashboard is now live! From fertilizer price to consumption, this dashboard makes Kenya’s fertilizer data easier to access, use, and share for national and county level decision making

“Knowledge sharing” is an undeniable buzzword in the international development space. However, the idea behind it is both simple and effective: by sharing similar experiences and learning from one another, teams can develop practical solutions to challenges. Often, they also discover their challenges are not unique – across DG’s global Aid Management Platform (AMP) network, our experience highlights how AMP country challenges and goals are often aligned.

With support from the Open Societies Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Development Gateway (DG) began conducting studies in July 2018 in Senegal, Guinea, and Nigeria to map data needs, availability, and use in the extractives sector. Last week at the EITI Global Conference in Paris, France, we shared key takeaways and findings on EI data needs in the session Leveraging Information Technology in EITI Mainstreaming. Today, we're sharing more details from our presentation and how takeaways are building into our EI data work in West Africa.

When someone mentions artificial intelligence (AI), it’s easy to conjure up two conflicting images: the first, killer robots whizzing past, replacing human jobs, daily tasks, and social interactions in a post-apocalyptic world; the second, a C-3PO-esque personality revolutionizing our health and food systems. Pondering this, we are also inclined to explore the question, where does

Since this past May, you’ve probably received a flood of company emails updating terms of service and consent requests to give permission to collect your data. You also probably know that this flood is all thanks to the EU’s recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has set us abuzz in its heightened protection of

Eight years after the devastating earthquake, Haiti is in a unique position as it transitions from being the recipient of post-disaster humanitarian aid to pursuing stable, sustainable development. With this in mind, how can we make geocoded data easier to collect, analyze, and use as part of decision-making processes in the country?