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This collaborative event, supported by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) at the U.S. Department of State, brought together diverse stakeholders to promote transparency and prototype digital tools to prevent and expose corruption in public spending, investment and procurement.
Originally adapted from hackathon methodologies to meet the needs of government entities and financial regulators, TechSprints are intense problem-solving sessions that aim to facilitate innovation through a competitive team format.
"Corruption weakens citizen trust in governments, and technology can be a powerful tool to bring transparency and accountability to public institutions," says Paula Acosta, Chief of the IDB Innovation for Citizens Services Division. "The TechSprint offered a unique platform to showcase innovative solutions aimed at enhancing transparency across the region by promoting citizen participation and access to information."
According to IDB estimates, waste and inefficiencies in government spending across Latin America and the Caribbean potentially cost up to $220 billion each year, or 4.4% of the region's GDP.
The “TechSprint for Greater Government Transparency” took place as part of a collaboration agreement signed by the IDB and AIR. The partnership aims to foster innovation by identifying and developing open source technology prototypes that enhance government transparency in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the additional potential to catalyze similar anti-corruption programs globally. It supports the IDB's InvestmentMap, an initiative that promotes transparency in public budgeting, investment, and procurement through digital platforms that integrate and visualize public data.
“By enabling a collaborative approach to common goals among organizations, groups, and individuals who may not ordinarily work together, TechSprints provide opportunities for knowledge sharing, learning, and networking both during the event and long after its conclusion,” says Jo Ann Barefoot, AIR CEO and Co-founder. “We’re honored to partner with IDB and the U.S. Department of State on this important initiative and thrilled to see all of the innovative ideas presented by the teams,” she continues.
The event attracted over 580 applications from 25 countries showcasing diverse backgrounds and skills. Teams were tasked with identifying solutions and developing digital prototypes to tackle problem statements for five key areas: enhancing public understanding of government financial activities through AI chatbots; improving citizen access to investment data with user-friendly interfaces and social media features; boosting government information management with low-code tools; identifying infrastructure and development gaps for sustainable planning, and enhancing public data quality and governance to build trust in public institutions.
Participants also explored technological improvements to transparency platforms operating in Latin American and Caribbean countries as part of the IDB's InvestmentMap initiative.
Eight teams began working together virtually in July 2024 and presented their solution proposals to a renowned panel of five judges on August 28, 2024.
Team Patagonian was named the Overall Impact Award winner for their solution called Piwe Transparencybot, which allows users to interact with the InvestmentMap platform through the website and WhatsApp to access and analyze its data. Their prototype demonstrated the greatest potential for transformative impact by empowering citizens, journalists, and public officials through the ability to increase transparency, improve accountability, and prevent corruption.
The organizers also awarded category recognitions to the following teams:
Vanguard in User Experience Award
Recognizes the prototype that most effectively promotes user experience, usability and accessibility.
Team Claire
Claire³: Using generative AI, the solution enhances citizen engagement with InvestmentMap and supports broader educational goals.
Rapid Integration Award
Awarded to the prototype that can be integrated or implemented more quickly into the existing InvestmentMap platforms and/or similar platforms in the future.
Team Radar Financiero
Radar Financiero: It provides project-to-contract drilldowns, company data views, automated social media updates, and upcoming notifications and newsletter subscriptions for enhanced user experience.
Data Democratization Award
Recognizes the prototype that unlocks powerful analytics, visualizations and insights from public data for consumption by non-technical users.
Team TRUST
TRUST: It digitizes pre-contractual documents and catalogs prices and services for emergency contracting, providing public servants with visual tools to spot inconsistencies, validate historical prices, and detect potential corruption.
Smart Innovation Award
Recognizes the most compelling implementation of advanced technologies, such as AI/ML, to increase transparency, improve the identification of irregularities and anomalies, and strengthen citizen engagement.
Team Jarecdata
Benford: It helps detect anomalies in public spending data, enables citizens to report issues via a georeferenced app, and provides a proposed approach for transparency indicators to enhance public access to government data.
The Overall Impact Award winner’s solution will enter an incubation phase with IDB for potential implementation in one or more countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives from Team Patagonian also received an exclusive invitation to IDB's Regional Policy Dialogue on Transparency and Integrity at the Open America event in Brazil, December 3-6, 2024, to present their solution to a broader audience of development experts and government representatives.
About the IDB: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a member of the IDB Group, is devoted to improving lives across Latin America and the Caribbean. Founded in 1959, the IDB works with the region’s public sector to design and enable impactful, innovative solutions for sustainable and inclusive development. Leveraging financing, technical expertise and knowledge, it promotes growth and well-being in 26 countries. Visit our website www.iadb.org/en.
About AIR: The Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) is a nonprofit, non-membership organization working to make the financial system fully inclusive, fair and resilient through responsible use of new technology. By connecting regulation, finance, technology and society, AIR drives global innovation and collaboration to address rapid technology change.
Joseph Schember
Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR)
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