At a press conference in DC yesterday, the IDB unveiled a cool new interactive tool called “Mapping the Majority.” It’s an interactive Flash mapping tool – low-bandwidth readers, consider yourselves warned before clicking through. But for those of us with fast enough connections, I wholeheartedly encourage you to check it out. Similar to the remittance mapping that IDB’s done in the past, Mapping the Majority takes economic, demographic, and other national-level data and integrates it with a map of Latin America. Think proprietary mash-up and you’ve probably got the right idea.

In the next two decades mass human migrations from rural to urban areas are expected to radically transform the world’s demographic landscape. Much of this migration will take place in the developing world, where rural inhabitants now subsist on small scale farming. As these farmers migrate to urban areas, harnessing their skills through urban agriculture may prove to be one of the most effective ways to alleviate the crippling poverty that many will inevitably face when they finally arrive in cities.