One may think the words “sustainable development” might be abstract and bewildering to children – until meeting the students of the Sustainable Development Club of Le Collège Bilingue in Dakar, Senegal. Week after week, middle and high school students flock to this after-school club that aims to teach them about the benefits of a clean environment as a catalyst to development.

A Trip to the Sustainable Development Club

In the past months, we have shared updates on various exciting new opportunities in the procurement and open contracting (OC) space.

On September 17th, the UN Foundation’s Social Good Summit took place at the 92nd Street Y in NYC as a kickoff to the 72nd Meeting of the UN General Assembly. Entrepreneurs, experts, activists, and SDG Global Goalkeepers gathered in a call to action about how we will integrate technology and innovation into our vision for 2030.

Open contracting aims to enable governments and citizens to more effectively use procurement data in decision making and monitoring of procurement results. While many governments have made commitments to open contracting (OC), their efforts, in a number of instances, have tended to focus on OC compliance.

We are pleased to announce our endorsement of the Principles for Digital Development. The Principles, of which Digital Impact Alliance is the steward, seek to institutionalize lessons learned in the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) in development projects.

When data — particularly government data —  is made relevant and available, we as “infomediaries” have an opportunity to create public value. As a community of data users, we are becoming more savvy at turning datasets into information, and information into advocacy for better public resource allocation, transparency and accountability, and good governance.  

When it comes to understanding government procurement, we need data. And to understand how efficient procurement processes are, we must assess the quality of procurement data...

Next week, we will be participating in the Africa Open Data Conference in Accra, Ghana. We are excited to share with 600+ other individuals and organizations how DG and our partners use open data to empower citizens, reduce corruption, and elevate evidence-based policymaking.

We are proud to announce that Josh Powell, DG’s Deputy CEO, has been invited to join the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD). This news comes just one week after DG joined the ICGFM board, further emphasizing DG’s growing reach and influence in the world of development data.

We are pleased to announce that Development Gateway has been invited to join the board of the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM). In doing so, we join a diverse yet collaborative and powerful group of 19 other Sustaining Members. Vanessa Goas, DG’s Director of Operations, will continue to spearhead the DG-ICGFM relationship as she takes the position of Board Representative.