Posts categorized Explainer

In their second blog exploring Nigeria’s changing fertilizer market, Vinisha Bhatia-Murdach and Scott Wallace dive deep into the details of the NPK fertilizer market and explore how Nigeria became a leader in this space. They also discuss why the VIFAA Nigeria dashboard is an important part of ensuring access to information at each point in fertilizer supply chain.

Many factors must be considered before investing in a data ecosystem for sustainable development, including the objective of the assessment, the focus level, and specific goals for data outputs. IREX’s Jesus Melendez Vicente and DG’s Carmen Cañas would like to share a few insights and questions to help you get started, including a curated list of tools for data ecosystem assessments.

Our final episode of "Data… for What!?" about our strategic plan Josh Powell speaks with Fernando Ferrayra and Annie Kilroy about digital transformation, ways to center the user, and our approach to emerging technologies.

Our Visualizing Insights for Fertilizer in African Agriculture (VIFAA) Program launched an Innovation Fund to address data shortages relating to total crop production. Building on its track record of mapping land cover, Quantitative Engineering Design (QED) was selected to tackle the challenge of mapping Nigeria’s croplands. Through the Innovation Fund, DG and partners will use the resulting data and maps to answer two questions: (a) what is the total cropland under production in Nigeria and (b) what is the cropland under production by crop type.

In the past decade, there has been over $7 billion worth of private-sector investments into Nigeria’s agriculture sector. Why, and what is the impact of these investments? What does it mean for Nigerian farmers? In this blog, we explore these and other changes happening in the Nigerian fertilizer market.

In Episode 3 of "Data… for What?!", Development Gateway’s new podcast, we explore how we are prioritizing our geographical focus in the coming years. Conversations with Vanessa Baudin Sanchez, Carmen Cañas, and Charlene Migwe-Kagume highlighted the opportunities and challenges of expanding our portfolio in Central America and deepening our work and partnerships in West, East, and Southern Africa.

Data governance frameworks are essential as data and technology continue to become increasingly central to how governments, institutions, groups, and individuals all interact with one another and among themselves. Here are the best practices DG has learned in creating data governance frameworks so far.

In response to fertilizer availability challenges in sub-Saharan Africa which are fueled by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine along with a host of pre-existing factors including COVID-19, VIFAA is now launching the Africa Fertilizer Watch to track regional and country-level market indicators, productivity and production distortions on food production and agriculture.

IREX’s Data Compass and Development Gateway’s CALM are methodologies for assessing data ecosystems. While each methodology produces different outputs based on different needs, both prioritize local collaboration and development to produce insights and outputs that reflect local priorities and actionable recommendations that institutions can own and implement.