Stories, ideas, and updates from DGers around the world

'This Story from the Field comes from Joshua Powell, a Business Development Associate with Development Gateway focusing on AidData and geocoding work:'

From Nov. 29-Dec. 1, the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was held in Busan, South Korea. In an interview with the Inter Press Service, Development Gateway CEO Jean-Louis Sarbib hailed the inclusiveness of the forum, with traditional donors acknowledging the broad range of actors now involved in development. The importance of South-South cooperation, he

Today, AidData launched its new and improved website, featuring more content and new data and marking an expansion in the program’s mission and scope. What began as a project to build a new kind of development assistance database has evolved into a broader initiative that aims to increase the accessibility and relevance of development finance information for a wide range of stakeholders.

On Nov. 8-9, 54 software developers representing 17 nationalities gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels for the EUHackathon “Hack4Transparency!” event.  Teams of developers competed in a 24-hour marathon coding session to create new tools that enable transparency and accountability in the information age. According to the event organizers, this was the first time that

“Tech@State: Data Visualization” took place on Sept. 23, 2011 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.  The event was organized by the U.S. Department of State, Development Gateway, AidData and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery. The conference presented speakers, panelists and guests with the opportunity to explore new and innovative data visualization

A panel discussion on “Open Data, Open Knowledge, Open Solutions,” hosted by the World Bank Institute on September 22, served as a platform for participants to discuss the multifaceted dimensions of open data in international development. It focused on global interconnectedness, free information flows, new technologies, and greater openness. Panelists explored different avenues to further empower individuals and to create new solutions to global development challenges.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and AidData recently released a data set containing the sub-national locations of all AfDB projects continent-wide approved from 2009-2010. The data, available at Open.AidData, represent more than $10 billion in AfDB Group funding to 43 African countries.

This Story from the Field comes from Anna Lauridsen of Development Gateway International. She tells us about her participation in the Open Data for Development Camp held in Amsterdam in May: The Open Data for Development Camp was put together by Open for Change, a network based in the Netherlands committed to transparency, collaboration and impact in development, on request by the Dutch Foreign Ministry. I was there to present the geocoding work that Development Gateway and the AidData team have done. At the heart…

The Open Data for Development Camp (ODDC), hosted by Open for Change in Amsterdam from May 12-13, proved to be a fantastic forum for discussion of practical issues in institutionalizing open data practices. Participants generally agreed that open development data should be a core component of a paradigm shift towards increased transparency, accountability, and public participation in development practice.

Last week, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and AidData launched an interactive map showing the precise locations of the AfDB’s ongoing operations in Cameroon, Morocco, and Tanzania.