DFATD Development Data widget generator

The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) Development Data widget generator is a tool that anyone can use to create a widget for a website that will search the DFATD aid data. This tool can also be adapted for use with other aid agencies that share data according to the IATI standard. The example below illustrates how someone with an interest in Canada's support for basic health care in Haiti can create a widget like the one displayed at the bottom of this blog that will gather information on Haiti as a recipient country and health as a sector. This tool is a supplement to other search tools for aid development such as aidview, a global search tool for aid data designed for the end user.  

How to use the widget generator

The DFATD data that is searched by the widget generator can be viewed in xml format here. This file adheres to the International Aid Transparency Intitiative (IATI) file standard. The codes can be viewed at the IATI site. For example, the general category for the health sector is 121; sub-categories add an additional 2 numbers. Following is a sample widget. This can be copied and pasted into a website tool such as google blogger's gadget function from the blogger layout menu, that accepts html/javascript. The DFATD Development Data widget generator is a tool that anyone can use to create a widget for a website that will search the DFATD data using any two parameters. For example, someone with an interest in Canada's support for basic health in Haiti can create a widget that will gather information on Haiti as a recipient country and health as a sector.

To create your own widget, simply copy the script and change the parameters that are of interest to you, your group or community.

For example, to search a different recipient country, find the place in the script that says:

recipient-country&up_mykeyword2=HT

and change the country code from HT (for Haiti) to the country code of your choice. The country codes are listed on the IATI codes site here. To change the recipient country to Bhutan, for example, code the piece of code above, replacing HT with BT.

To change the language to french, find the part of the code that says lang=en and change to lang=fr. The IATI site provides a list of language codes; DFATD information is available in english and french.

Examples <script type="text/javascript" src="//www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/108447061287942535117/hello3.xml&up_myfield1=sector&up_mykeyword1=12220&up_myfield2=recipient-country&up_mykeyword2=HT&synd=open&w=250&h=300&title=Haiti+Basic+Health+Data&lang=en&country=ALL&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"> "</script> <script src="//www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/108447061287942535117/hello3.xml&up_myfield1=sector&up_mykeyword1=15160&up_myfield2=recipient-country&up_mykeyword2=CN&synd=open&w=350&h=350&title=Droits+de+L'homme+n+Chine&lang=fr&country=ALL&border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&output=js"></script&lgt;

 

Future possibilities

• GUI interface (e.g. drop down menus) to make it easier for website administrators to generate new widgets
• more style options
• Transparency might be enhanced by giving beneficiaries in the recipient countries and other key stakeholders an opportunity to crowdsource their own quantitative or qualitative assessment of the results of a project, and/or suggestions for future projects. 

About this project: The CIDA Development Data widget generator is an early prototype designed to illustrate the potential for enhanced searching of development data created by Team Widget, my group at the Citizen Attaché hackathon.The project website which includes technical information and contacts, is available here.

This post is part of the Creative Globalization series.

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