Development Gateway and Esri partner to make international aid more transparent

April 14, 2011
Andrea Calabrese
News/Events

PRESS RELEASE

Washington, DC – Development Gateway, an international non-profit that makes information on development aid more transparent and accessible, signed a memorandum of understanding with Esri, a leading provider of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology. The two organizations plan to continue joint efforts to leverage geospatial technology to support international development objectives.

"There is a huge amount of information on international aid available to the public online. But if you really want to understand what donors are doing, seeing the locations of aid activities on a map is very powerful," says Nancy Choi, Director of Products and Operations at Development Gateway. "Particularly in disaster situations, we are increasingly seeing the use of interactive maps to coordinate relief efforts and ensure that resources are distributed to the areas of greatest need. But the same approach can work for long-term development efforts as well, especially in countries where there are dozens of donors implementing thousands of projects. Working with Esri, we intend to make aid information more visual, so that it’s easier for decision makers and the general public to access and understand."

Esri and Development Gateway have already worked together to create the Development Loop application for AidData, a joint initiative of Development Gateway, Brigham Young University, and the College of William and Mary. Development Loop is a collaborative tool for planning, tracking, and assessing aid projects worldwide. Future versions will employ crowdsourcing tools, allowing development professionals and community beneficiaries of aid to create or update project data from anywhere in the world via free web and mobile applications. In doing so, AidData hopes to generate a "feedback loop" between aid donors and beneficiaries.

Development Gateway and Esri may also work together on new mapping interfaces for Development Gateway’s Aid Management Platform, a virtual workspace for governments and their development partners with implementations in 20 countries.

###

About Development Gateway

Development Gateway increases the impact of international development activities through innovative, sustainable information management solutions and services. A nonprofit organization with activities around the world, Development Gateway works to empower people to accelerate change and transform their societies.

https://developmentgateway.org

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri applications provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis via complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.

http://www.esri.com

Press Information

Contact: Emily Kallaur, Development Gateway

Tel: 202-572-9227

E-mail: ekallaur@developmentgateway.org

Share This Post

Related from our library

The Future of Technology Governance and Global Development: Why DG Brought DataReady In-house

DG is excited to announce we now have more robust data governance advisory services with the recent integration of DataReady.

August 7, 2024 Strategic Advisory Services
Letting the Sunshine in: Building Inclusive, Accountable, and Equitable Climate Finance Ecosystems

In April, DG, HackCorruption, and the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network hosted a roundtable in Bangkok to discuss climate financing. This blog explores the main takeaway: a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder approach that prioritizes local contexts, inclusive governance, transparency, accountability, and equitable distribution of resources is essential to impactful climate financing.

May 13, 2024 Strategic Advisory Services
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.

January 17, 2024