infoDev and the World Bank’s Finance, Economic and Urban Development (FEU) department are working together to advance the Information and Communication Technology for development (ICT4D) agenda in the area of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and Spatial data infrastructure (SDI).
Dubbed Spatial Data Infrastructure for Millennium Development Goals (SDI4MDGs), the project will provide Technical assistance to two developing countries, Jordan and Uganda, on how they can use GIS/SDI for monitoring development outcomes with specific focus on the monitoring and achievement of MDGs.
SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MONITORING MDGs
infoDev brings to the project its experience in analyzing how cutting edge information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be harnessed to address real-world problems. This project fits within infoDev’s second theme of mainstreaming ICTs as tools for development and poverty reduction. The FEU Department has a strong track record in using GIS tools in the analysis of spatial data and of delivering both operational projects and technical assistance to countries using GIS techniques. FEU has also been called to play a coordinating role in the management of GIS throughout the Bank. Faced with a growing number of requests for technical assistance in the GIS field, FEU is seeking to develop knowledge products that can be used as a basis for the delivery of assistance (e.g., how-to guides) as well as responding more effectively to individual requests.
The project combines three main elements:
Learning from good practice
Two detailed case studies will be developed early in the project’s schedule, to understand the experience of two emerging economies (Brazil and the Republic of Korea) that are perceived as having performed well in establishing SDIs that meet their development needs.
Learning by doing
At a second stage in its schedule, the project will fund two Technical Assistance sub-components to work with the relevant stakeholders in two countries with incipient SDI development (Jordan and Uganda) in supporting their institutional capacity and policy frameworks for SDI. These two TA components will tap global experience as well as the lessons from good practice emerging from the cases of Brazil and Korea, and will be undertaken in close collaboration and consultation with country stakeholders.
Synthesis and diffusion of knowledge
By the end of the project, several products will have been completed that would help to disseminate the lessons from this project including a global report on SDI, How-to guides, and public website.
The principal source of funds for the project is the Korean Trust Fund (KTF) on ICT4D, which was established in 2008 and awards grants to World Bank projects and activities submitted along cross-cutting strategic themes. In terms of the aims of the Korea Trust Fund, this project is aligned with the theme of mainstreaming ICT for development, in this case the application of GIS and SDI for development. GIS could be applied in many different areas targeted by the MDGs, for instance in health, education, agriculture and rural development, clean technology and public administration.
Learn more about this project at www.infodev.org/gis or click here.
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