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Over the last 10 months, Development Gateway (DG) has worked with Argentina’s National Roadworks Directorate (DNV) to create an Open Contracting (OC) data portal for the DNV.

The DataRev begins on November 20th here in Washington, D.C, kicking off a 3-day learning, collaborating, and networking event centered on the importance of data use to inform, drive, and measure development outcomes. At the Data Rev, we’ll gather with partners to promote and discuss the importance of investing in local data skills to drive decision making.

Since November 2018, Development Gateway (DG) has led the Visualizing Insights on Fertilizer for African Agriculture (VIFAA) program, a four-year partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

 Development Gateway’s mission is to support the use of data, technology, and evidence to create more effective and responsive institutions. We envision a world where institutions listen and respond to the needs of their constituents; are accountable; and are efficient in targeting and delivering services that improve lives.

Imagine a young woman in her mid-20s in Nairobi, Kenya, named Rehema. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, she is surveilled. When she turns off her morning alarm, an app logs how many hours she slept. As Rehema jumps onboard a bus to go to work, her phone tracks her location.

Bloomberg’s Data for Good Exchange (D4GX): Data Science for SDGs brought together data scientists, corporations, academics, practitioners, and civil society to discuss issues and explore opportunities related to data science and social good. Given DG’s recent work on the Administrative Data Driven Decisions (AD3) program and understanding national data ecosystems, we opened our D4GX workshop asking, “Show of hands – who thought today’s workshop would cover how to use data science and administrative data to report on SDG indicators?”

At DG, we pride ourselves in being a learning organization – focusing on continuous improvement and knowledge-building. We support this goal through a number of mechanisms, including holding post-mortem meetings at the end of every project. A post-mortem is a common method for project teams to review different perspectives on what went well, challenges faced, and what lessons could improve future projects.

VIFAA Kenya implementation began in April 2019. Across VIFAA, we see cross-stakeholder partnerships as a key entry point to meet country and regional fertilizer needs. In Kenya, we are leveraging these partnerships to co-develop work plans that specifically address key data – and data use – gaps. Our approach to strategic decision-making starts with addressing those data gaps. In consultation with country stakeholders each step of the way, we will also identify data sources and co-design fertilizer dashboards.

As in most organizations, Development Gateway’s leadership team is always exploring ways to support and retain our talented team members, and we take care to encourage our neighbors and similar organizations to do the same. Years of research has shown that staff retention is critical not only for the growth and stability of an organization, but also is a key element in employee satisfaction – teams that grow together through the years can be stronger and more cohesive.

“Knowledge sharing” is an undeniable buzzword in the international development space. However, the idea behind it is both simple and effective: by sharing similar experiences and learning from one another, teams can develop practical solutions to challenges. Often, they also discover their challenges are not unique – across DG’s global Aid Management Platform (AMP) network, our experience highlights how AMP country challenges and goals are often aligned.