OpenUN
OpenUN is a project instigated by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and built by Development Seed, with the intent to bring together and better visualize the worldwide activities amongst UN branches.
The OpenUN prototype utilizes published datasets from IATI, the International Aid Transparency Initiative. "At the core of aid transparency," as it is stated on the IATI site, "is knowing the details of who is doing what, where. IATI is a multi-stakeholder effort to make this information available."
While publishing data to an open standard is the first big step towards coordinating aid efficiency, making that information accessible is equally crucial. True transparency is not guaranteed by the bulk release of data alone, but comes through the accessibility, discoverability, and interoperability of the data delivery. Learning from the experience of open.undp.org, UNDP and Development Seed collaborated on building a prototype of Open-UN that puts IATI datasets to good use.
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Prototype Specs
§ Data
Currently, OpenUN culls data from five UN organizations that publish aid activities. Only two organizations provide data with recorded locations - UNDP and UNOPS. As more and more organizations improve on their data quality and start to publish granular activity locations, the map would become more nuanced.
Data, scripts and process can be found in the _bin folder.
§ Static APIs
IATI activities are downloaded as xml files, processed via python scripts into json, and consumed as static APIs on open.undp.org/open-un. The json structure reflects what is important in visualizing an activity on the map, namely - the location(s), reporting organization, sector(s), and implementing organization(s).
There are significant advantages of using json and a static API: faster site speed and more consistent data quality.
Processed APIs and related look-up indices can be found in the api folder.
§ Frameworks
The site runs as a client-side app with BackBone.js and Foundation.js. Maps are built with MapBox.js and leaflet.js. Hosted here on GitHub, OpenUN uses jekyll as the static site generator.
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How to Contribute
Read more about contributing to the development of this project.
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Further Readings
For a more in-depth look on the IATI data standard: http://iatistandard.org/activities-standard/
For learning more about jekyll setup: https://github.com/undp/undp.github.com/blob/master/README.md