About

As part of the World Bank’s new policy on Access to Information and building on the success of the Open Data Initiative, the World Bank developed the interactive Mapping for Results platform in October 2010 to visualize the locations of Bank-financed projects and international aid programs at the sub-national level for the first time. The tool overlays country maps with poverty and Millennium Development Goals data, such as infant mortality rates, with the geographic locations of donor-funded projects, enhancing our ability to monitor development impact and improve transparency and social accountability. By making information about development activities accessible at the local level, we are ultimately aiming to foster transparency and accountability by empowering citizens and other stakeholders to provide direct feedback on project results.

The team has analyzed more than 2,500 World Bank-financed projects and geo-coded more than 30,000 locations spanning 144 countries. For select countries, the Mapping for Results platform provides not only geographic information of World Bank-financed programs at the sub-national level, but also allows users to overlay disaggregated poverty and human development data (e.g., infant mortality rates).

With the entire Bank portfolio now geo-coded, the World Bank and other donors established an Open Aid Partnership to improve coordination and effectiveness of aid worldwide. The initiative aims to enhance aid transparency by making aid information about development partner's activities accessible at the local level; foster accountability by empowering citizens and other stakeholders to provide direct feedback on project results; and improve aid coordination by developing an Open Aid Map that visualizes the geographic location of donor- financed projects at the sub-national level. A first Open Aid Map phase been piloted for Malawi and, for the first time, visualizes the geographic locations of multiple donor-financed projects on one map.