Syndicate content

October 2013

Speaking in Their Voice – World Bank Group Finances Goes Multilingual

Prasanna Lal Das's picture



Our world is awash with increasing amounts of data, but potential audiences for this data remain under-served for the most obvious of reasons - the data just doesn’t speak their language.

This has been true for the data on the World Bank Group Finances website which has only ‘spoken’ English since it was launched. Yes, we should have done this earlier but the website, and its associated open datasets, are now available in 5 new additional languages - Chinese, French, Hindi, Russian, and Spanish . The mobile app has been available for some time in 9 languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian Bahasa, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish) and the new release of the website is in line with the program’s quest to include new audiences and communities in the use and dissemination of open financial data. 

Multilaterals join forces on data for the post-2015 agenda

Haeduck Lee's picture

As the “Data Revolution” takes shape, Multilateral Development Banks, the UN, and IMF have already begun to improve their collaboration on development data.

This process was launched on April 19, 2013, when Heads of these institutions signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sets out the basis for enhanced collaboration in statistical activities. In short, the MOU is part of the global response to the evidence focus of the post-2015 agenda, and the eagerness for policy makers to accelerate the quantity, quality, availability, and usability of data for development. 

What would a Global Partnership for a Data Revolution look like?

Grant Cameron's picture
Also available in: 中文 | Español | Français | العربية
//openclipart.org/detail/168029The post-2015 agenda will focus on evidence.  The mantra “funding for what works” is gaining momentum, and policy makers are eager for better data to design actions and monitor performance. The high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda puts this clearly: it wants to see a global “data revolution”. 

A revolution needs revolutionaries (and here are a couple of genuine data pioneers). But how can diverse groups around the world come together to help make development data better? The panel proposes a new “Global Partnership on Development Data”; this post proposes a first idea of how this might work and how it might differ from past efforts. I’d like to know what you think.

New partnership seeks to bring benefits of open data to developing countries

World Bank Data Team's picture

The World Bank opened its data to the public on April 20, 2010, providing free and open access to a comprehensive set of data about development in countries around the globe. Central and local governments around the world are increasingly ‘opening' a range of data, for free, including as part of continuing global efforts to improve public services, create economic growth and enhance transparency.