World Bank Managing
Director Caroline Anstey argued that we’ve only begun to scratch
the surface of open data’s full potential, and that more
data are needed—she says that we still “know much too little to be comfortable
that policy is being informed by the facts on the ground.” It sounds
like the new Mobile and
Development Intelligence open data platform might help with that. This
platform will enable
users to manipulate, visualize and export datasets on mobile devices in many developing countries. The new managing director of Publish What You
Fund, Dr. David Hall Matthews, wrote
about the progress the U.S. has made in aid transparency and outlined next steps to move the agenda forward. Lucy Bernholz, a self-described “philanthropy wonk,” put
together a lengthy list of ways that data
can change philanthropy; she quickly followed this with a post
on why foundations should do more to use data and evidence to inform their resource
allocation, policy, and programmatic decisions.
Last week, AidData participated
in a Technology
Salon about the likely impact of the
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
on U.S.-based development agencies (check out this great
summary of the event). A study
conducted by CIPESA and the Association of Progressive Communications showed
that Uganda is ready in many ways to implement a national Open Government
Data program, but political
factors—the fear of potential
negative effects of opening government data—might make it difficult to implement such a
program.
Shannon O’Neil of the Council on
Foreign Relations reviewed the record of Conditional
Cash Transfer programs in Latin America, while across the ocean,
UNHCR called
for donors to scale up the emergency response
to the surge in numbers of refugees entering South Sudan. Meanwhile, in Khartoum, the government of Sudan expelled
seven of the 14 aid agencies operating
in its eastern region.
Taryn Davis is a Communications Intern at Development Gateway.
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