Researchers recently unveiled some of the first efforts to map development projects, a technique aimed at improving coordination of effort.
Using new “geo-referenced aid data,” the projects by AidData plotted the spatial and sectoral coordination of active projects by the World Bank and the African Development Bank in Kenya and Mozambique. Another project concerned Uganda.
Although international financial institutions do not currently use geocoding in their materials about projects, there is increasing interest in doing so, according to researchers and IFI officials consulted by FreedomInfo, raising the prospect of a new dimension for IFI transparency.
An unsigned post on AidData’s “The First Tranche” blog extols the value of mapping aid data, explaining: “Having this information at one’s fingertips is a huge step forward in aid transparency, but many people in the development field view this as merely a first step and see a need for more specific and accessible information on where the funding actually goes. Although AidData makes accessing a list of projects in the Ugandan education sector much easier, if I wanted to determine where within Uganda these projects are located, I would face a much more difficult task.”
The blogger explained the impediments further:
Thanks to the Open Data Initiative announced in April 2010, all World Bank documentation is now publicly available. However, to find the sub-national location of a project, I would have to sort through hundreds of pages of PADs (Project Appraisal Documents), EAs (Environmental Assessments), ISDSs (Integrated Safeguard Data Sheets), PIDs (Project Information Documents), PPs (Project Papers) and other official documents. And then, in many cases, I still might be frustrated to discover that there is no concrete geographical information. I know this challenge well, as I spent six weeks of my summer working as a researcher on the Mapping for Results Initiative.
The project was, however, jointly done with the World Bank Institute, and the blogger says, “In response to the difficulties this presented to our research team, the World Bank is now experimenting with a pilot program to introduce standardized location reporting into future project documentation.”
The project on Kenya and Mozambique by AidData is described in a blog by research assistants Alena Stern and Josh Powell, who wrote: “Geo-referencing development projects is one very promising method that could facilitate greater coordination and dialogue between policymakers and development practitioners, as well as researchers, NGOs, recipient governments, and citizens.”
They concluded:
As geo-referenced data become more common, donors and other interested parties (like us) can use the data to find and publicize areas and sectors that are not receiving an amount of aid that is proportional to need (measured in various objective ways). Such visualizations do not provide clear answers about where aid should be allocated, but they raise important questions with striking clarity and will encourage donors and recipient governments to explain allocation patterns to beneficiaries and taxpayers. We think this will improve the prospect of aid dollars arriving where they are needed most.
AidData also has this video on geocoding.
Filed under: IFTI Watch