January February 2008

DGF Newsletter


January/February 2008

From the Foundation:
Country Gateway Network News:

FROM THE FOUNDATION

AiDA Adds Information from Major Nongovernmental Organizations
The database on development activities, AiDA, now includes activities funded by the Gates Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Soros Foundation Network. These nontraditional donors fund over 3,800 activities. As a tool for aid effectiveness, AiDA includes information on more than 200,000 development projects worldwide. Visit the database.
Bolivian Implementation of AMP Is a Landmark for Aid Effectiveness
In December 2007, the Development Gateway Foundation installed the Aid Management Platform in Bolivia’s ministry of planning and began training staff. This represents both the first Spanish-language AMP implementation, as well as the first to fully integrate an existing aid database into AMP. In the coming months, the Aid Management Platform will be enhanced with additional information from the ministry’s public investment database—enabling a comprehensive view of aid flows to Bolivia and the resulting development activities. AMP is creating a key linkage between donor programs and government public investment activities to better inform development planning and results monitoring across the project cycle. Learn more about AMP.
Tanzania Pilots AMP
The Aid Management Platform was piloted in Tanzania in early February. The ministry of finance is hosting the application and its external finance department is populating the database with information from all donor agreements. It is expected that a few selected donor agencies will start using the system in March or April. AMP will facilitate reporting on aid flows, monitoring disbursements, improving projections for the national budget process, and supporting government-led coordination of the aid management process. The platform will also be tested by the ministry of infrastructure, in order to report on results for the large portfolio of infrastructure investment projects.

Tanzania has been a forerunner in working toward the objectives of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. This has resulted in a joint assistance strategy accepted by most multilateral and bilateral donors. AMP will support the government in its efforts to coordinate its development partners, leading to stronger impact of development activities. Learn more about AMP.

dgCommunities will Change Its Open Source Content Management System
The platform upon which the online knowledge communities are based will change this spring. While the user interface for dgCommunities members will remain the same, the new system will make available exciting features for dgCommunity members. Stay tuned for more details.
New Communities on Disaster Prevention and Reconstruction to Launch in April
The new dgCommunities scheduled to launch this spring are Disaster Prevention & Response and Stabilization & Reconstruction. They are supported by funds from the Center for Strategic and International Studies with active participation of more than 25 advisors. The new communities will provide a virtual space in which participants can share knowledge, best practices, and other relevant information. The purpose of this initiative is to build capacity, strengthen working relationships, and improve development outcomes. Particular emphasis will be placed on bringing together government agencies and international and nongovernmental organizations in developed and developing countries to discuss common challenges.
Fust to Head the Global Humanitarian Forum
Kofi Annan, president of the Global Humanitarian Forum, named board member Walter Fust as its first CEO. Fust will assume the position following his retirement from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. In addition to serving on the foundation’s board, Fust chaired the board of the Global Knowledge Partnership and was a member of the steering committee of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development. Read about the board.
Second Annual Appeal to Support dgCommunities
With 30 dgCommunities covering a range of development topics, this knowledge-sharing platform is vibrant community all its own. There are more than 40,000 members, half of whom are from developing countries, who contribute resources and use the site to find information relevant to their work. Next month we will kick off our annual campaign to increase support for these online networks. Look for details to come.

COUNTRY GATEWAY NETWORK NEWS

Country Gateways in Latin America and the Caribbean Participate in Regional ICT Events
From February 4 through 8, 2008, representatives from Country Gateways took part in the second Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (eLAC2007) and the seminar on Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID). Regional coordinator César Yammal and participants from country gateways in Guatemala (José Manuel Soto), Honduras (Raquel Isaula), El Salvador (Gilberto Lara) and Nicaragua (Cornelio Hopmann and Jose Ignacio Lopez) attended the meetings. The main purpose of these events was to determine the level of progress that has been made in the implementation of the regional action plan for the information society in region and to launch the GAID Latin American and Caribbean Regional Network.

“Country gateways promote multisectoral processes in their countries, using information and communication technologies to solve local development problems. They can be considered small platforms that contribute to the mega platform of eLAC. The country gateways are specialists in content and applications,” explained César Yammal. He also saw the participation of the country gateway representatives in the eLAC workgroup on content, applications, and creative industries as a way to maximize the impact of the conference and to contribute to the action plan.
Launch of the Burkina Faso Development Gateway
The Burkina Faso Country Gateway is now online. This information-sharing platform focuses on initiatives that can serve as an example for other initiatives. The portal provides online services for employment, development information, and publishing. The Country Gateway also offers training in project management and information technologies. Visit the site.

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The Development Gateway Foundation provides Web-based tools to make aid and development efforts more effective. It offers innovative solutions that increase access to critical information, building local capacity and bringing partners together for positive change. The Development Gateway Foundation is a nonprofit organization with activities around the world.

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