Stories, ideas, and updates from DGers around the world

Through DG’s Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program, we recently published a case study titled “Fostering Sustainable Agriculture through Data-Driven Collaboration and Partnership: Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Nigeria.” It dives deep into how the VIFAA program has impacted the fertilizer data and markets in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Nigeria. In this blog, we explore the overall impact that the VIFAA program is making, why the program was needed, and offer some key highlights from the case study.

Through our Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) program and its sister program Data on Youth and Tobacco in Africa (DaYTA), we have learned that creating governance structures, such as advisory boards or steering committees, is one approach to ensuring that digital solutions appropriately meet stakeholders’ needs and foster future stakeholder engagement. In this blog, we explore three insights on how governance structures can advance buy-in with individual stakeholders while connecting them to one another.

IREX and Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG) are pleased to announce their collaborative work on the USAID-funded Early Grades Education Activity (ASAS) program, which launched in August 2023 and will run through July 2028. This blog explores how the ASAS program will empower teachers, universities, communities, and stakeholders within Jordan’s Ministry of Education and throughout the country to deliver inclusive and holistic early-grade education for Jordanian students from kindergarten to grade three in order to strengthen numeracy and literacy skills.

Development Gateway: An IREX Venture (DG) and our strategic partner IREX, supported by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, conducted a study of the education data systems in Kenya and Senegal. In our findings from this study, we underscore the necessity of a harmonized approach to education data management and share insights that provide a valuable roadmap for future reforms and investments in education data systems.

In order to combat the effects of climate change, financing is needed to fund effective climate fighting strategies. Our white paper, “Tracking Climate Finance in Africa: Political and Technical Insights on Building Sustainable Digital Public Goods,” explores the importance of climate finance tracking, common barriers to establishing climate finance tracking systems, and five insights on developing climate finance tracking systems.

In partnership with UNCCD, GGW Accelerator, and the Pan African Agency for the GGW, DG has launched the Great Green Wall Observatory. This pioneering digital platform monitors the GGW Initiative's progress, enhancing collaboration, accountability, and transparency across 11 African countries. By providing financial and project management data, the Observatory empowers communities, stakeholders, and policymakers to combat climate change in the Sahara and Sahel regions. With over 302 projects and $15 billion in commitments, this tool promotes robust climate action and fosters local and global engagement.

As tobacco companies have aggressively deployed creative strategies to market retail nicotine and tobacco products at children and adolescents, it is imperative that tobacco control stakeholders have access to timely and high-quality data to inform robust policies, regulations, and enforcement mechanisms.

Drawing from Development Gateway: An IREX Venture’s work in implementing country-specific digital solutions that support a cohesive approach across a given region or continent, we have identified five insights on how to go about implementing digital public infrastructure systems at the country-level while having a cohesive approach throughout Africa.

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.

During the recent Summit for Democracy in Seoul, South Korea, DG led a session exploring how national commitments to developing technology can strengthen democracy and combat corruption. From that conversation, we identified three insights on how to advance this essential work.