News from 2022-09-12 / KfW Development Bank
Double upgrade for TruBudget software
KfW’s blockchain-based digital promotional product TruBudget has recently reached two significant milestones. Firstly, the open source software has been upgraded to version 2.0 by the addition of new technical features. Secondly, the international specialist institution Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) has certified TruBudget as a digital public good (DPG).
TruBudget has been available to the general public for free since April 2019. Following an analysis of the user experience to date, the upgraded version incorporates a new and more powerful document management system in addition to changes to the user interface. Moreover, TruBudget can now also be used in a test and development environment without having to install the software on a computer (“TruBudget as a Service” – TaaS). This allows users to get started quickly and easily.
With its certification as a digital public good, TruBudget is now included in an international catalogue with digital solutions that are globally available to the public for free. This makes it possible to use state-of-the-art software without ongoing licence fees, especially in countries with low and middle incomes. The open source code of such applications not only ensures the digital sovereignty of users, but also makes data security requirements transparent. In this way, digital public goods contribute to the sustained, independent development of these countries.
Major global challenges can only be overcome through the innovative use of new technical possibilities. As a global transformation bank, KfW has therefore been using innovative digital options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of development cooperation with partner countries for many years. With TruBudget, KfW has developed a digital platform that enables work and coordination processes between project partners to be implemented in real time and data to be recorded transparently and securely. The resulting transparency and traceability allows financial partners to manage their contributions directly via the partner systems. This eliminates the need for previously complex parallel structures for risk hedging and donor harmonisation and significantly reduces transaction costs.
TruBudget platforms are already being used in practice in Brazil, Georgia, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. The TruBudget pilot phase is currently being prepared with three other partners: Tunisia; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Smart Africa Secretariat.
