The World Bank has been in the news rather a lot recently, and not always for the most salubrious of reasons, but the global financial institution seems to want to clean up its image and make itself more transparent to citizens everywhere. How better to do this than with a mobile app? Or, in the World Bank’s case of overkill, six iPhone/iPad apps, with a promise of “more great mobile applications” to come.
So what could one ever possibly want to do with six World Bank applications, developed – appropriately, one would assume – for the most expensive smartphone and tablet on the market? Well, there’s one app called “World Bank at a Glance” which purports to offer “a wealth of information about the Bank Group.” We’re loving the play on words there, very witty, masters of the financial universe.
For those who would rather know just what the World Bank is actually doing with all that cash – aside from putting its wildly overpaid executives up in ludicrously priced New York hotel suites and subsequently having to hire them lawyers – users can download the “World Bank Finances” app.
“Ever wondered what the World Bank’s doing with its money? Where does the World Bank fund development projects? How much has been disbursed? Are you interested in a specific project in your neighborhood? The World Bank presents open financial data to the public, continuing its commitment to increased transparency, modernization, and focus on accountability,” the blurb claims. And yes, we do often wonder what the World Bank does with, ehem, “its” money.
If you are more results driven and have less time to spend pontificating the philosophical problems of the World Bank’s spending dilemmas, you may be more interested in the “World Bank Results at a Glance” app, which claims to highlight “450+ results profiles across more than 85 countries over the last decade.” Primarily, the app displays data from World Bank partnership with developing countries, and the progress of those countries towards the intriguingly back-to-the-future named “Millennium Development Goals.” Best value proposition yet? It doesn’t even require an Internet connection, meaning all that useless, er, fascinating data will be saved to your actual device.
If all that data still isn’t enough for you, may we recommend another gripping app from the good people at the WB? Introducing World Bank Infofinder, which promises to come good on the organization’s July 2010 “Access to Information” policy. “Now nearly all information from The World Bank is open to everyone, except for materials falling under a limited list of exceptions,” promises the app. Unfortunately, it’s probably the exceptions that prove more interesting than the rule.
Not into finding “info” and would rather find “data”? Well, the World Bank is nothing if not a master at subtlety and nuance, presenting avid fans with “World Bank DataFinder” differing from its InfoFinder cousin in that it “lets you access 50 years of World Bank data on global economic indicators, chart and visualize that data, and share those charts for use in your presentations, research, and projects.” In other words, students, it does your economics homework for you.
For those who have already left the classroom and are already busy drumming up potentially dodgy deals from Dakar to Damascus, you mustn’t leave home without the World Bank’s “Doing Business at a Glance” app either. This affords users the ability to measure “the ease of doing business according to business regulations in 183 economies,” and is helpfully made available offline, in case the connection is a bit dodgy in Sierra Leone.
So next time you feel the urge to complain about what the World Bank is actually doing – don’t! These people are busy, damn busy, developing a whole host of financial apps that someday – we hope – will be able to actually help them do something efficient. Might we recommend an app called “World Bank Bucket” – it might really help with those bailouts….
