As we've covered before, DG is pleased to be supporting the advancement of Open Contracting (OC) and enhancing data use in Senegal and Uganda. Through the Hewlett Foundation, we'll be completing a series of data use projects over the next two years, collaborating with local actors and developing tools to take existing open contracting efforts to the next level. In Senegal, we're working with the Autorité de Régulation des Marchés Publics (ARMP) and civil society partners to support the Government of Senegal and other key stakeholders in using procurement data to enhance procurement results.

Though many species use primitive “tools” to complete basic tasks, very few creatures aside from humans craft tools with future use in mind. Unlike many software development organizations, DG prioritizes free and open-source software (FOSS). Today, we present an overview of how we built a new FOSS script that has benefited internal IT management behind the new tools.

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.

“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.

Access to safe water is essential to our health and wellbeing.

In 2003, an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary set out to write his honors thesis on the efforts of international development organizations to help communities adapt to and mitigate the effects of global climate change. His research quickly hit a roadblock: existing public data on foreign aid flows was not precise enough to enable his analysis.

How do conflict, climate change, and natural disasters overlap -- and how can policymakers mitigate these challenges? The Complex Emergencies and Political Stability in Asia (CEPSA) program...

Every day, government, civil society, and development agency officials make decisions about where to implement new projects, or how to allocate resources. But how do these individuals make these decisions – what data do they use (or need), and are existing data fit-for-purpose?

The Aid Management Program (AMP) helps governments and development partners gather, access, and monitor information on development activities, with the goal of increasing aid effectiveness. The Program’s software, AMP, provides visualization tools that enable users to analyze and visualize development activities.

Stephen Hawking famously observed that “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” As with humans, technology tools must also adapt to changes within organizations if they are to remain useful, and, well, “intelligent”. So what does technology adaptation look like in practice, and how can we make the most of it?