Justf.org is going global!
Due to the success of Just the Facts, the Center for International Policy and its partners are expanding the scope of the project to include data on U.S. military and police aid worldwide.
Just the Facts will soon become the Latin America section of Security Assistance Monitor, a new website that tracks U.S. security assistance to the rest of the world. SecurityAssistance.org will offer all the same resources as Just the Facts, but with better usability.
Aside from being more aesthetically pleasing than our current site, Security Assistance Monitor will include some new features:
- A database that allows visitors to interact with and view the data in a way that was not possible before. Securityassistance.org will feature interactive data sets that allow users to automatically create downloadable trend graphs, tailored to the exact programs, countries or regions for which they want data.
- Data will now be downloadable in Excel and .pdf formats.
- Key sections of the site translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
- Country pages will have interactive trend charts for military and police aid, trainees and arms sales.
- Easier ways to search and sort the wealth of other resources (besides the data) that we offer, including: daily news links, relevant legislation, U.S. government policy statements, events, other governments’ policy statements, and official government reports.
- Detailed FAQs and screencasts to walk you through how to filter the site and its data to get to the information you want.
The goal of Security Assistance Monitor is to provide a comprehensive, comparative look at the United States’ security assistance to different regions of the world. While the new site will house data for U.S. assistance globally, it will provide “Just the Facts”-style analysis and resources for Africa, the Middle East, Central Eurasia and of course, Latin America and the Caribbean.
But don’t worry; we aren’t going to make you sift through heaps of global information to get to the data, news and policy information about Latin America and the Caribbean currently offered on Just the Facts.
Users only interested in Latin America and the Caribbean will be able to filter the site to show only information relevant to the region, so your current user experience won’t be lost – just enhanced.
An example of how data visualizations will appear on the new site:
Here's a trend graph showing U.S. assistance to counternarcotics programs in Colombia from 1996-2014:
And another showing economic aid to Colombia from 1996-2014:
We will use SAM as we’ve used Just the Facts – as a tool to highlight troubling trends, high-priority issues and promising alternatives. We hope that you will find the new site useful and provide feedback of how we can make it even better.
As we have created our new website site with you in mind, we want to hear from you about your experience. Please email sam@ciponline.org with any questions, concerns or feedback.