At its annual meetings in Lisbon, Portugal (June 9-10), the African Development Bank and AidData announced the launch of an interactive map of AfDB project activities in Cameroon, Morocco, and Tanzania.
As part of the launch, the underlying data sets for these countries were also made public, demonstrating the AfDB’s commitment to transparency as an IATI signatory.

This August, the geocoded locations of all AfDB projects continent-wide approved from 2009-2010 were made available at open.aiddata.org. The data include more than $10 billion in AfDB Group funding to 43 African countries. In total, AidData’s researchers, in partnership with AfDB project managers, were able to identify nearly 2,000 sub-national locations from the 183 AfDB projects. Using these data, stakeholders can view the precise locations of schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and other bank-financed activities.

The geocoded data is also fully compatible with the IATI geocoding standard and World Bank/AidData Mapping for Results data, also available from open.aiddata.org and maps.worldbank.org so researchers and analysts can mash the data up to examine donor coordination, sub-national aid targeting, and many other questions. It is exciting to see donors begin mapping their data to provide a clearer picture of the distribution of aid resources within countries, ultimately improving the impact of aid on the ground.

Recently the Government of Timor-Leste, with funding from the Asian Development Bank, decided to implement the Aid Management Platform (AMP). AMP is a system for governments to track and report on projects and programs funded through development assistance. By the end of this year, Development Gateway will install the system in the National Directorate for Aid Effectiveness (NDAE) within the Ministry of Finance in Timor-Leste. Access will also be rolled out to development partners and other key ministries.

Currently, AMP is operational in nearly 20 countries around the world. One aspect that makes the Timor-Leste implementation unique is the focus on integrating AMP with the government’s existing financial management and budgeting system. This will improve the quality and timeliness of aid information and ensure that it is reflected in national budgeting processes. Linking aid management with public financial management more broadly will enable the government to have a better picture of all resources at its disposal, so that it can plan accordingly.