Development Gateway

Development Gateway
Motto Solutions that empower.
Formation 1999
Type Information Technology, ICT4D, Aid Effectiveness, Aid Transparency, e-government
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Location
Official language
 English, French, Spanish
CEO
 Jean-Louis Sarbib
Website DevelopmentGateway.org

Development Gateway, formerly known as the Development Gateway Foundation, is an international non-profit organization that works in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). It seeks to improve aid transparency and governance through information management solutions and consulting services for development organizations and developing country governments.

Development Gateway was created in 1999 by then-president of the World Bank James Wolfensohn.[1] Initially, Development Gateway was incorporated within the World Bank, and in 2004 became an independent entity. It is supported by a combination of unrestricted grants and project-specific funding from a number of bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and private foundations.[2]

Development Gateway maintains several informational websites and databases as public goods for those working in international development, including AidData, Zunia, and dgMarket. It works with governments of developing countries that receive aid to improve aid information management via the Aid Management Program, the main component of which is the Aid Management Platform, and other online software tools. Development Gateway also designs and maintains custom websites and software tools for development organizations on a contractual basis.

Aid Management Program

The Aid Management Program (AMP) combines online software with institutional strengthening activities to help developing country governments that receive official development assistance (ODA) build capacity for aid information management.[3] There are two primary components to the program: 1) aid information management systems including the Aid Management Platform and ODAdata and 2) institutional strengthening activities.

The program was first presented at the 2005 High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Paris and has since been implemented in 22 countries with funding from UNDP, the World Bank, and governments. Countries use AMP to monitor the implementation and execution of development aid projects, coordinate development strategies with donors, and produce ODA and budget reports. The system offers an optional interactive mapping module provided by Esri. Development Gateway hosts an annual conference, known as the AMP Best Practices Workshop, to enable governments in the program to exchange experiences and best practices.

AidData

AidData is a collaborative initiative to make information on development finance and activities more transparent and accessible. AidData is a joint project of the College of William and Mary, Brigham Young University, and Development Gateway, and launched its online platform (www.aiddata.org) in March 2010.

AidData maintains a searchable database of development assistance at www.aidddata.org that include data from 95 donor agencies from 1945 to the present. In addition, the AidData website provides a collection of related resources, including unvetted "raw" datasets on development assistance and other datasets on international development work. The partner institutions behind AidData engaged in research projects on data collection and augmentation through crowdsourcing and other methods as well as more traditional research on aid allocation and effectiveness.


AidData has also worked to geocode development assistance data. Jointly with Uppsala University’s Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), AidData developed a geocoding methodology for aid information, worked with the World Bank on the Mapping for Results initiative,[4] and collaborated with Esri on the Development Loop application.

Zunia

Zunia is an online platform for knowledge exchange and networking among development practitioners. Zunia aggregates publications, posts, and articles from international development organizations, websites, and blogs. Zunia also aggregates job listings in the international development field from other sites. Zunia users can post development-related content, comment on other content, subscribe to custom email alerts, and create or join thematic discussion groups. Zunia replaced dgCommunities, an earlier version of Development Gateway’s knowledge-sharing platform, in 2009.

dgMarket

dgMarket is an online marketplace for government tenders, providing access to tender notices, contract awards, bidding documents, and other procurement information. dgMarket provides access to government tenders in 60 countries and aid-funded tenders in 150 countries. Branded dgMarket Web sites have been launched in Estonia, Belarus, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Israel, Kenya, Mauritania, Mexico, Romania, Rwanda, Spain (Catalonia), Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, as well as for the Agence Française de Développement and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Country Gateways

The Country Gateways program was one of Development Gateway’s first initiatives and sought to replicate the international Development Gateway model at the country level. With seed funding from Development Gateway, 36 countries – including China,[5][6] Morocco, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, and others – have established independent Country Gateway entities. Each of these organizations is loosely modeled after Development Gateway, but each has distinct objectives. Some Country Gateways publish procurement notices for government contracts, databases of development projects, directories of non-governmental organizations, and e-commerce tools. Offline services include consulting and training in ICT.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Friedman, Alan. “World Bank and Italy to fight poverty in technology initiative” New York Times, April 11, 2002.
  2. ↑ BBC “Key Players: Civil Society and Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs)”
  3. ↑ Center for Global Development “Following the money: Toward better tracking of global health resources.” May 2007
  4. ↑ Kanani, Rahim. "Aleem Walji of the World Bank Institute's Innovation Team on the Future of International Development" Huffington Post. May 5, 2011.
  5. ↑ Chen Chao “Development Gateway – A place to put knowledge and Ideas Together” May 27, 2002 China Internet Information Center
  6. ↑ Xinhua “China Joins the Development Gateway Foundation” May 28, 2002