Photo Credit: Gabriel Inchauspe
Blog

Stories, ideas, and updates from DGers around the world

The Development Gateway: An IREX Venture blog is where DGers share specific learnings, offer thought-provoking insights, and pose challenging questions for the sustainable development community derived from our work.

Our blog has a deep archive going back to 2005. Each post is a snapshot into our work, priorities, and values.

Making IATI Work for Donors: Lessons from USAID and DFID

There are approximately 42,000 agricultural projects published through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). These projects contain information on which donors are spending what and where. The Initiative for Open Ag Funding has repeatedly heard that this information can be a powerful tool when planning and coordinating projects. Yet despite such enthusiasm, we found that

January 10, 2018
Aid Effectiveness & Management, Open Data
Sustainable Development, Through Children’s Eyes

One may think the words “sustainable development” might be abstract and bewildering to children – until meeting the students of the Sustainable Development Club of Le Collège Bilingue in Dakar, Senegal. Week after week, middle and high school students flock to this after-school club that aims to teach them about the benefits of a clean

December 21, 2017 Global Data Policy
News/Events
Define, Co-Design, and Repeat: Putting Usability Testing to the Test in Tanzania

Last month, the Results Data Initiative (RDI) convened its second cross-ministry co-design workshop — surfacing new opportunities for the Government of Tanzania to put health data to use at the local level. This two-day workshop re-convened stakeholders from across ministries and local governments, building on the priorities they identified in the first workshop back in

December 13, 2017 Process & Tools
Process, Results Data
Focus, Progress, Transition: dgMarket a New Company

In the past months, we have shared updates on various exciting new opportunities in the procurement and open contracting (OC) space. To name a few, we’ve shared news of a Hewlett Foundation grant to implement OC data use projects in Senegal and Uganda, an OC joint research agenda, and developing new tools to validate data.

December 1, 2017
News/Events
Open Contracting for the Future: Three Frontier Issues

The future of open contracting depends on the ability of governments and citizens to open up the entire public contracting cycle, create feedback channels, and use open contracting data to improve procurement results. But there remain a number of crucial issues that will advance or hinder the open contracting agenda in the years ahead. In

November 27, 2017 Open Contracting and Procurement Analytics
Open Data, Procurement
From Transparency to Data Use: Rising to Open Contracting’s Next Challenge

At Development Gateway, we are investing in open contracting because we believe in the value it brings for both governments and citizens. Over the past several years, we have conducted over 10 open contracting assessments, developed backend tools for converting and publishing data in the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), and created a suite of

November 16, 2017 Open Contracting and Procurement Analytics
Procurement
Analysis, Action, and Learning: Understanding Next Steps for SEMA and Water Point Data

In addition to supporting timely data collection about water access in Tanzania, the Sensors, Empowerment, and Accountability (SEMA) network provides a public-facing District Water Engineer Dashboard. Figure 1: Screenshot of DWE Dashboard Map This dashboard allows key audiences – citizens, District Water Engineers (DWEs), other Ministry of Water and Irrigation officials – to easily view the

November 14, 2017
Innovation
SEMA and Citizen-Generated Data

“Basically, we used to have two methods of getting information on water infrastructure… The first… [was] the water department at the municipal level would visit the villages once or twice a year during the months of June and December to do stock-taking of all water points and their functionality status. “The second method was to

November 7, 2017
Innovation, Open Data
Sensors, Empowerment, and Accountability: Tapping Water Resources in Tanzania

Access to safe water is essential to our health and wellbeing. As an international community, we recognize this as demonstrated by our commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 6, “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” At the national level, universal access to safe water is a core indicator in Tanzania Vision

October 31, 2017
Innovation, Open Data
Social Good Summit 2017: Technology, Innovation, and a Call to Action

On September 17th, the UN Foundation’s Social Good Summit took place at the 92nd Street Y in NYC as a kickoff to the 72nd Meeting of the UN General Assembly. Entrepreneurs, experts, activists, and SDG Global Goalkeepers gathered in a call to action about how we will integrate technology and innovation into our vision for

October 24, 2017 Global Data Policy
News/Events