GIS and SDI Project Development

infoDev and the World Bank’s Finance, Economic and Urban Development (FEU) department are working together to advance the information and communication technology for the development (ICT4D) agenda in the area of GIS technology and Spatial data infrastructure (SDI). The project, Spatial Data Infrastructure for Millennium Development Goals (SDI4MDGs), will provide technical assistance to Jordan and Uganda on how they can use GIS/SDI for monitoring development outcomes.

The project combines three main elements:

- Learning from good practice: Two detailed case studies will be developed early in the project’s schedule, to understand the experience of two emerging economies (Brazil and the Republic of Korea) that are perceived as having performed well in establishing SDIs that meet their development needs.

- Learning by doing: At a second stage in its schedule, the project will fund two technical assistance (TA) sub-components to work with the relevant stakeholders in two countries with incipient SDI development (Jordan and Uganda) in supporting their institutional capacity and policy frameworks for SDI. These two TA components will tap global experience as well as the lessons from good practice emerging from the cases of Brazil and Korea and will be undertaken in close collaboration and consultation with country stakeholders.

- Synthesis and diffusion of knowledge: By the end of the project, several products will have been completed that would help to disseminate the lessons from this project including a global report on SDI, how-to guides, and a public website.

The principal source of funds for the project is the Korean Trust Fund (KTF) on ICT4D, which was established in 2008 and awards grants to World Bank projects and activities submitted along cross-cutting strategic themes. In terms of the aims of the KTF, this project is aligned with the theme of mainstreaming ICT for development, in this case the application of GIS and SDI for development. GIS could be applied in many different areas targeted by the MDGs, for instance in health, education, agriculture and rural development, clean technology and public administration.