Posts categorized News/Events

Next week, we’ll be in Dubai, UAE for the 2nd UN World Data Forum – focusing on how data leads to impact across groups such as information technology experts, GIS experts, civil society organizations, and data producers and users. At an event as packed with awesome sessions, we know it can be tough to keep track of what's what, and who’s where – here’s a preview of where you can find DG. See you in Dubai!

This week, DG will be participating in the International Open Data Conference (IODC). While we will be attending an extensive mix of events – and focusing on gender issues in open data – we hope to see you at the following sessions in particular.

Later this month, we’ll be attending the International Open Data Conference (IODC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Made possible by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, DG is pleased to the financial holder of travel grants that are supporting a selected group of women to join us at IODC. In doing so, we’ve partnered with the Open Heroines network, an online group of women in open government, civic tech, and open data that is driving the facilitation of each grant award.

Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Accra Agenda for Action, we have conducted an AMP Retrospective on the DG blog. As our final Retrospective post, we are pleased to announce that DG has opened the source code of the Aid Management Platform (AMP). The now-public AMP source code is licensed under the GPLv3 open source license, which allows users to use and edit the software freely. 

“The Future is Open” is this year’s IODC theme, with the conference focusing on innovative solutions and opportunities for collaboration to inspire real progress in the years ahead. Critical to this progress is ensuring that data accurately reflects all citizens and their diversity of experiences, needs, barriers, and aspirations. But we know that open data continues to struggle to capture this for an entire half of the population: women.

DG recently participated in Elimika Wikiendi, an open online space for Kiswahili speakers to discuss issues including health, research, development, and technology in Tanzania and East Africa. The platform educates, raises awareness, and prompts online dialogue using the hashtag #ElimikaWikiendi.

We know that Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) aims to support accountability and learning, in order to drive better outcomes. Through the Results Data Initiative (RDI), we’ve approached M&E with a critical eye – how can we better allocate M&E funding, and what results are we really striving for?

DG is pleased to announce that Kim Yi Dionne, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Riverside, has joined our Board of Directors. “We are thrilled to have Kim join our board, as a creative and influential thought leader who embodies the values we strive for at DG. Kim’s approach of working with communities to understand their needs, amplifying underrepresented voices, and challenging stale thinking will push us to continue to grow and learn as an organization.“ states Josh Powell, DG’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

Global significance is often given to the concept of a ‘development expert.’ However, we believe that the best experts are often our partners and clients themselves, who truly understand challenges on the ground, know what works, and know what doesn’t. Through our biennial Aid Management Program (AMP) Good Practices Workshop, we are able to tap into this rich knowledge base, bringing together the experts working on the AMP within each country government.

The 2018 Aid Management Program Good Practices Workshop kicks off today in Nairobi, Kenya. We’re looking forward to facilitating open discussion, collaboration, and learning from the 7 country governments and many different types of AMP users that have gathered at the Workshop. This week, we hope to facilitate collaboration across countries, and to gain insight from your shared experiences.