The IDS Knowledge Services Open API (Application Programming Interface) makes the datasets held across our Knowledge Services accessible programmatically to other organisations and individuals to enable others to repurpose and contextualise this knowledge. The data available includes over 32,000 summaries and links to development research from over 8,000 organisations, covering 28 themes and 225 countires and territories.
As part of the requirements gatherine for the project, two workshops were conducted in South Asia and East Africa to explore possible partnerships with organisations who could develop applications using the API to share content, as well advocating for the use of Open APIs, data, standards, and licensing.
The API was launched in 2011, with technical grants made available in early 2012 for developers from the global South to design and build plugins, modules and add ons to repurpose and contextualise the date for existing content management systems and web platforms.
This project is supported by DFID through the Mobilising Knowledge for Development (MK4D) project.
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