The rapid expansion of information communication technology in the developing world is opening a broad range of opportunities to promote government accountability and improve service delivery. A basic idea shared by a range of smart government applications is that a range of accountability and service delivery failures can be addressed by using technology to increase the flow of information. This webinar will introduce a framework for understanding how interventions designed to reduce information asymmetries between citizens and their government can improve service delivery and discuss evidence from several recent experiments aimed at operationalizing these ideas. The webinar will also focus on directions for the future of smart government.

The economics of using smart phone technology in breaking through service delivery challenges

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The Growth and Employment (GEM) Project, a World Bank Group funded project implemented by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), has provided technical advice to Office of the Vice-President on the establishment regional Innovation Hubs across Nigeria. GEM project is now inviting proposals from existing private sector operators or non-governmental organizations with innovative, viable and sustainable proposals for the establishment or expansion of Innovation Hubs in the South- East, South West, North-West, North-East or North-Central Zones of Nigeria. The webinar will be presenting key findings of a recently launched report on “catalyzing growth in Nigeria through regional innovation: opportunities and challenges for developing innovation hubs across Nigeria” and discuss the call for proposals for innovation hubs under the innovative market grant window of the GEM project.

Supporting Regional Innovation Hubs in Nigeria

The webinar will present several methodologies for analyzing entrepreneurship and start-up activity in a country. Speakers will present case-studies based on the work implemented in Suriname, Serbia, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh, Palestine, Lebanon and other countries. These methodologies (or diagnostic tools) help not only understand constraints to innovation and entrepreneurship, but also compare performance vis-a-vis peer countries. The information they provide represents a necessary step toward a response – policy reforms, change in program design and resourcing, or a specific intervention, helping policy practitioners identify suitable entry points, justify interventions, and achieve consensus for key priorities and a course of action.

Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean: Where to Start

The webinar will explore social impact bonds as a potential model that addresses weaknesses of traditional approaches in solving social issues. An RBF instrument itself, impact bonds tie financial returns and payments to social outcomes. Their design brings private sector investment to programs that are not profit-centered but produce social externalities.

Social Impact Bonds_ Addressing Gaps to Solving social Issues

Acceso y visualización de datos multisectoriales en un contexto espacial

Acceso y visualización de datos multisectoriales en un contexto espacial  (Spatial Agent)

Many decisions in a watershed or a river/lake basin are hampered by availability of adequate information.  For example, which are the erosion hotspots in a watershed?  What is the flow at various points in a basin?   Which areas are susceptible to floods and droughts? What impact do upstream landuse changes or future climate scenarios have on its hydrology?  Answering these questions requires access to a range of multi-sectoral data that impacts multi-sectoral decisions in the basin context.

This webinar will set the watershed context for making decisions at different scales, illustrate what types of data are useful to help make such decisions, and overview of public-domain data (from in-situ and earth observation) curated by many organizations.  In particular, the session will introduce new opportunities for bottom-up (in-situ) monitoring with new sensors, and explore a rapidly expanding range of earth observation data products that are now accessible in the public domain.  A new innovative free World Bank App called Spatial Agent will be presented along with its associated learning resources on OLC.  This will demonstrate the powerful visualization of thousands of relevant (mostly global) data services provided by NASA, ESA, The World Bank, UN organizations, Universities, and other institutions around the world.

At the end of this webinar, we expect that the participants can gain a good appreciation of why spatial information is useful in a watershed/basin context, and be able to use the Spatial Agent App.  It will also introduce the Watershed Moments webinar series.

Accessing and Visualizing Multi-Sectoral Data in a Spatial Context (Spatial Agent)

World Bank's Open Learning Campus (Video)

The economics of using smart phone technology in breaking through service delivery challenges

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