Have you wondered what the World Bank does with its money? Which countries it partners with to fund development projects and how much money it disburses to such projects? Ever wanted to track a project and report back on it to the Bank?
The new World Bank Finances mobile app provides the answers to these questions and more. Individuals and communities now have real-time access to the Bank’s financial information with mobility to connect and engage directly with the Bank about local development projects that impact their lives.
The mobile app features active IBRD and IDA financial information at the country, project, and loan levels. Users can bookmark countries, projects and loans that interest them, browse an interactive map, filter countries based on their preferred criteria, share information with their communities via social media channels, and enter into a dialogue with the Bank to provide feedback.
Citizen engagement is an especially important feature – the app makes it much easier for people to report issues related to data accuracy, corruption and fraud.
“Now more than ever, people who have the vested interest in monitoring the Bank’s financing have the means to do so,” said Chuck McDonough, World Bank Vice President and Controller. “Tools like the World Bank Finances mobile application allow them to follow the money trail from funding agencies, to countries, and to projects in their neighborhoods.”
The World Bank Finances app is part of the Bank’s Open Data initiative and a companion tool to the recently launched World Bank Finances website. It consolidates data from the World Bank Finances website and World Bank Projects API. The result is an app that goes beyond data disclosure to provide meaningful financial information to communities who do not have access to the Internet through computers or have the technical resources to use the raw “unvarnished” data on the website.
Shaida Badiee, director of the Bank’s Development Data Group, added, “The new app for World Bank Finances joins an expanding family of tools that enable use of World Bank Open Data and information through mobile devices. Providing easy ways for citizens to interact with the Bank using data about projects and their financing is an important step forward, and I look forward to the response.”
The World Bank Finances mobile app is available for the iPhone and iPad (click here to download from the iTunes App Store) and for other mobile devices via web browser at financesapp.worldbank.org. In the coming months, the Bank plans to launch the app in multiple languages, add more data, improve its citizen reporting feature, explore SMS functionality, and introduce versions for additional mobile platforms.
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