AidData and the African Development Bank Launch MapAfrica, Move from Mapping Financial Flows to Mapping Results
May 21, 2014 – KIGALI, RWANDA – Today, the African Development Bank (AfDB), in partnership with
AidData, launched MapAfrica at its annual meetings in Kigali. The interactive online platform enables
citizens, government officials and donors to view the geographic location of AfDB’s investments in
development projects throughout Africa. AfDB has long been a leader in aid transparency and partnered
early on with AidData to geocode AfDB’s portfolio of projects – applying precise location information to
development activities. Now AfDB and AidData are taking an important next step, building upon these
geocoding efforts by matching investments with results data and beneficiary stories, allowing citizens and
other users to more easily see not only what AfDB is doing and where, but also the impact of those
activities.
According to AidData Steering Committee Member and Development Gateway CEO Jean-Louis Sarbib,
“Results and accountability matter whether in the Global North or the Global South. MapAfrica gives
citizens and professionals the information they need in an intuitive format so they can participate in the
development process and improve its effectiveness."
The MapAfrica platform offers new and innovative ways for users to view development projects and
improve the targeting, coordination and evaluation of aid. With MapAfrica, citizens can drill down to a
country, district or city level. Citizens, NGOs and policymakers can access hyper-local information about
projects that are relevant to them and view results information. MapAfrica contains more than 6,000
geocoded project locations and users can filter those project locations by country, sector and year. Users
will also be able to select one project and view all implementation locations, providing an accurate sense
of the scope and breadth of the project. Data layers in the MapAfrica platform, such as GDP per capita
and subnational poverty rates, can be layered to allow users to view indicators of interest alongside
project implementation locations. The platform was developed using Esri’s ArcGIS platform, specifically
ArcGIS API for Javascript and ArcGIS for Server technology. Esri, a leading GIS company, is a longtime
partner of AidData.
MapAfrica, paired with AfDB’s institutionalization of geocoding and commitment to transparency, holds
tremendous promise in helping to repair the broken feedback loop between donors, governments and the
citizens that projects intend to help. In the future, AfDB and AidData will pilot a citizen feedback
component of MapAfrica. Today’s launch of MapAfrica, alongside other data portals on aid and
development including AidData’s own aiddata.org, is expanding opportunities for a broader community of
users to provide hyper-local feedback on development investments, learn more about what works and
engage in informed dialogue about future development priorities.
For more information and to view a video about the MapAfrica platform, visit aiddata.org/mapafrica.
About AidData
AidData makes development finance information more accessible and actionable by creating data,
decision support tools and knowledge products that enable the global development community to more
effectively target, coordinate and evaluate aid. With AidData’s comprehensive data portal – aiddata.org –
development researchers and practitioners can compare data on over $40 trillion in remittances, foreign
direct investment and aid from 90 donor agencies.
About the African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It
comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund
(ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 34 African countries with an external office in
Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional
member states. For more information: j.mp/AFDB_Media