IADB Launches MapAmericas

This weekend the Inter-American Development Bank is launching their new MapAmericas platform at their annual meetings in Montevideo. The new platform features interactive maps of the region’s countries that provide detailed information on active IDB projects, ranging from data showing where and how money is being invested, to multimedia stories describing the development impact on communities. You can read more about the project or dive in and start exploring.

We are excited the IADB built their MapAmericas platform with GeoIQ. By using GeoIQ, they were able to quicky and easily begin organizing and georeferencing their data from the very kick-off of the project. Creating maps in meetings to share ideas and prototype interfaces and explore data quickly demonstrated effective ways to share the stories and insights of the IADB’s work. Using our API they then created a custom experience for visitors to explore the projects, results, documents, videos and more information effectively.

Like the World Bank’s Mapping for Results, the IADB is opening up their invaluable project data and result output data. Using the dashboard you can dive into any project to see where it is building schools, improving irrigation, or boosting crops through technology and training. The platform is initially with 141 projects in five of the poorest countries in the region: Bolivia, Haiti, Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Urugay. The remaining 21 countries will be continually added.

The new platform enables the IADB to embed images, videos, news stories, statistics, project indicators, and other related documents, providing a fuller understanding of the progress being made on the hundreds of projects that receive IDB financing throughout the region. By making so much information so readily available to governments and to the general public, the Bank hopes to enrich dialogue with donors, beneficiaries, and civil society.

Stay tuned for more information on features we built into GeoIQ for IADB’s MapAmericas that will be available on GeoCommons. In the meantime, check out the video they made to highlight the project.