Over 130 organisations are now publishing their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), an open data platform that gives a timely, comprehensive and comparable picture of aid flows in order to improve accountability and impact.  Germany is the latest country to begin publishing its data in line with the IATI common standard, with Russia signalling its intention to join.

Meanwhile IATI’s membership has grown to include 37 donor signatories who together represent 75% of global official development finance.

In a foreword to the report, Justine Greening MP, UK Development Secretary says: “Transparency of aid flows is critical to good aid delivery. It helps reduce waste, fight corruption and makes sure money gets to the people who need it most. Better information at country level is right at the heart of what the International Aid Transparency Initiative is about – empowering people on the ground to scrutinise and make better decisions.”

IATI was established in 2008 to improve the transparency of aid to increase its effectiveness in tackling poverty. Those publishing their data to the common standard include governments, foundations, non-governmental organisations and civil society.

IATI is currently working in five partner countries (Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Honduras, Nepal and Rwanda) to assess the initiative’s impact and check the information being provided is meeting the needs of aid-receiving governments and other stakeholders.

Greening: “IATI has come a long way [and] this progress is to be commended. But we still have a long way to go. Now is the time to challenge each other on the quality of our data, and to strive to improve quality, increase access and better use this growing and invaluable resource.”

During 2013 IATI will launch a data store, enabling enhanced accessibility, and will continue to promote the development of tools such as aidview.net to encourage increased access and use of IATI data.

Other priorities for 2013 include work on the common standard, supporting the private sector to implement the initiative, as well as working with signatories to move beyond publishing what they can to publishing the full extent of what is needed by partner countries and other stakeholders demanding aid information.

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Media Contact: Hilda Kalap or Tom Berry on +44 (0) 117 9 272 505 or + 44 (0) 7583315846/ +44 (0) 7891 932 726 or email tom.berry@devinit.org

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The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve the transparency of aid in order to increase its effectiveness in tackling poverty. It does this by providing timely, comprehensive and comparable information.

IATI was launched at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana in September 2008 where the IATI Accra Statement recognising the importance of transparency in aid information was agreed. All organisations signing up to IATI recognise the principles of the IATI Accra Statement.

From mid-2013 a consortium led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and including the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Governments of Ghana and Sweden, and a UK-based NGO Development Initiatives will take over the role of hosting IATI which has been carried out since 2009 by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).  The new consortium will host till the end of 2015.

For more information about IATI email media@aidtransparency.net or follow #IATI on Twitter

While relatively small in the climate finance landscape, the Adaptation Fund has been a first mover in many areas. The larger impact of the Fund may very well be its ability to be flexible and to pioneer initiatives such as:

1)      Market-based resource mobilization: most of the aid architecture for climate finance is through country contributions; the Fund, however, receives revenue from a two per cent levy on emission reductions from the clean development mechanism. To date this has generated 188 million USD.[1]

2)      Direct access to climate finance for developing countries: the vast majority of climate finance flows to recipients through multilateral organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank and other regional development banks.  The Adaptation Fund, however, is recognizing strong institutions in developing countries and letting them take on the implementation of projects and programmes on behalf of the country.

3)      Governance structure: developing country governments have a majority of seats on the Adaptation Fund Board.

4)      Results management: prior to approving a single project, the Board approved a results-based management framework, which not only gives its work a strategic focus but has set indicators and targets for process effectiveness.

The success of the Fund in establishing an effective framework for climate finance is being examined with interest by donors, civil society, academics, and policy makers. As the devastating effects of climate change become increasingly clear, and attention turns to scaling up climate finance through the long-awaited Green Climate Fund, the experience of the Adaptation Fund is ever more critical. The Fund is keen to share its successes and lessons learned so that the larger community can improve the effectiveness of aid delivery within climate finance generally and with specific attention to climate change adaptation.  By becoming a signatory to IATI, the Adaptation Fund is confirming its commitment to openness and transparency.

Germany has been a member of the In­ter­na­tional Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) since it was founded in 2008. So far, 36 bilateral and multilateral donors have signed IATI and more than 130 organisations are reporting regularly to the IATI registry.

In late 2011, the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, explicitly reaffirmed the importance of this transparency initiative. Germany, too, made a commitment at the meeting in Busan to publish timely, detailed and standardised information on de­vel­op­ment co­op­er­a­tion. The BMZ published its national schedules for the implementation of the in­ter­na­tional transparency standards in December 2012.

In a first step, recent basic data and documents on ongoing bilateral ODA projects or activities will be made available online. This data complements the statistically verified data that the OECD publishes annually on the basis of member states’ ODA reporting.

Data and documents will be complemented continuously over the next few months and will be updated at least once every six months. The publication of strategy papers and evaluation reports will also be expanded.

For more information on transparency and German IATI reporting, please go to: www.bmz.de/transparency

The consortium – led by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and including the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Governments of Ghana and Sweden, and a UK-based NGO Development Initiatives – was selected by IATI’s Steering Committee in Paris on March 13 following a competitive process.  Beginning in mid-2013 for a three year period, the consortium will take over the role carried out since 2009 by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Developing countries today face huge challenges in accessing up-to-date information about aid, and in planning and managing these resources effectively. Citizens in developing and donor countries similarly lack the information they need to hold their governments to account for use of these resources.

IATI aims to address these gaps by making information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand.

Launched in 2008, IATI provides a common data format for donors willing to release information about current and future aid spending in a timely, comparable and reliable way. Financial flows, budgets, results, location, timelines and project documents are published into an online repository accessible to all users interested in tracking where, when and how aid is spent.

More than 120 UN agencies, multilateral banks, bilateral donors and NGOs covering 76 per cent of official development assistance input their information to IATI, and more than 20 partner countries have endorsed the initiative.

Each member of the consortium brings a unique set of strengths and all have demonstrated their strong commitment to transparency and the goals of IATI. The consortium approach will ensure that the initiative remains inclusive and dynamic, reflecting the changing development environment of today’s world.

UNDP will lead the consortium, coordinate the work of the secretariat and use its global network to promote and expand IATI’s effectiveness. UNOPS will provide financial and administrative services. Development Initiatives will support IATI’s Technical Advisory Group and provide technical support to IATI publishers. Ghana will ensure that partner countries are engaged and represented. Sweden will reach out to and engage donor countries.

IATI’s ability to adjust to the changing aid architecture will be a key challenge in advancing IATI implementation over the next three years. IATI will need to incorporate information on broader development cooperation initiatives, in addition to official development assistance. This will require deeper engagement with a wide range of providers of development cooperation, particularly emerging economies, foundations, and the private sector.

IATI will work to ensure complementarity with the OECD-DAC Creditor Reporting System (CRS), the Forward Spending Survey (FSS) in the common standard and prioritize progressive convergence towards a single common open standard, with all Busan endorsers completing common standard implementation schedules outlining their plans to fully implement this standard by the end of 2015.

ENDS

Consortium members

UNDP with its presence in 177 countries brings unparalleled outreach opportunity with all stakeholders and across the UN system. Ensuring improved aid effectiveness is fundamental to UNDP’s vision and forms the basis for its work globally. The organisation has continually proven its commitment to transparency and adhered to its IATI implementation schedule, recently launching open.undp.org and publishing over $5.8 billion in project data. UNDP provides Secretariat support to ensure the effective functioning of the Global Partnership. Through this relationship and the Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), UNDP has the opportunity to coordinate efforts between IATI and other initiatives around aid transparency to implement the Global Common Standard on Transparency agreed in Busan.. Playing a key role in the consultations leading to the establishment of the post-2015 agenda, UNDP also sees the opportunity to raise the profile of IATI within that forum. Specifically, UNDP will ensure the consortium is delivering its objectives, coordinate and oversee the administration and financial management of the consortium, lead its outreach and information functions, and provide overall substantive support to IATI Secretariat, TAG and Steering Committee meetings, fundraising efforts, and to the reform of IATI structures.

UNOPS demonstrated its commitment to IATI by becoming the first UN agency to publish to the standard in October 2011. It has since supported other UN agencies in their efforts to do so, as well as taking forward the wider transparency agenda, for example in the area of UN procurement. UNOPS brings its experience as the legal host to other multi-stakeholder initiatives as well as providing support to other international secretariats, both inside and outside the UN system. UNOPS has strong skills in efficient and cost-effective project management and in creative fundraising. UNOPS will provide financial management and administrative services within the consortium – including HR, procurement, collecting contributions, disbursing resources to partners and contract management, and ensure the smooth running of all logistical aspects of IATI Secretariat and Steering Committee meetings and other activities.

Ghana was one of the first partner countries to endorse IATI and has been a vocal member of the IATI Steering Committee and the Partner Country Caucus, frequently representing the views of partner countries to the wider group. Ghana’s broader commitment to transparency is clear in the wording of its constitution, its accession to the Africa Peer Review Mechanism and its membership of the Open Government Partnership. Ghana is well placed to galvanise partner countries to engage in the IATI process given its pioneering role in transparent government and its credentials as the host of the Accra HLF-3 as well as the IATI consultative workshop for the West and Central Africa Regions. Ghana will co-lead the consortium’s engagement and outreach with partner countries alongside UNDP. It will also contribute political leadership to the reform of IATI structures and ensure that the interests of partner countries are fully represented in the management of the initiative.

Sweden is a founder member of IATI, was one of the first donors to publish to the standard, and was seconded to the IATI Secretariat in the run up to Busan to enhance capacity for political engagement and ensure coordination with the Building Block on Transparency (which it co-chaired with the World Bank). Sweden has also demonstrated its commitment to transparency through the launch of national initiatives such as its aid transparency guarantee and its web-based platform, OpenAid.se, and through its engagement with other global initiatives including the Open Government Partnership, the Open Aid Partnership and the Grand Challenge Making Voices Count. As an acknowledged world leader on transparency, Sweden is well-placed to lead the consortium in its political engagement and outreach to other donors, and to ensure liaison between IATI and other processes such as the Open Government Partnership, the Open Aid Partnership, the OECD-DAC (WP-STAT), the Global Partnership and the Common Standard. It will also provide political leadership to the reform of IATI structures.

Development Initiatives has been a member of the IATI Secretariat and Steering Committee from the outset, responsible for drafting the initial scoping paper on IATI, helping to shape the IATI standard, with an emphasis on ensuring that the standard meets the needs of stakeholders in partner countries, and managing the development and launch of the IATI Registry. To date, DI has provided technical support to 35 IATI signatories in publishing their aid information to the IATI Registry, was the first CSO to publish to IATI in July 2011 and has since worked with BOND to support 73 UK CSOs plus 12 other non-signatories to publish to IATI. DI’s primary role within the consortium will be the continued provision of technical leadership and support, including the technical support necessary for maintaining the IATI standard, and managing support for implementation. DI will also continue to play a role in outreach, with a specific remit to engage with non-traditional donors (NGOs, foundations and the private sector) whilst supporting other consortium members who lead on other aspects of outreach and engagement.

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IDB is a leading source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean.  IDB is reporting on operations funded through the Bank’s Ordinary Capital (ORC), Fund for Special Operations (FSO), and Grant Facility (GRF) – covering 100% of sovereign-guaranteed loans and grants.

IDB is committed to providing its stakeholders with complete, timely, and easy to understand and use information regarding its activities and most importantly its results.  The IDB became a signatory of IATI at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in November 2011, and first published an implementation schedule outlining its IATI publishing commitments and plans in July 2012.

View IDB’s publisher page on the IATI Registry.

The IATI Secretariat is pleased to announce the new hosts beginning in mid-2013. IATI will be hosted by a consortium led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) comprising UNOPS, Sweden, Ghana and Development Initiatives up to December 2015.

Alasdair Wardhaugh, from current IATI host, the UK Department for International Development, says of the hosting decision: “The UK has been privileged to host IATI to date with strong support from IATI signatories both in monetary terms and implementation commitment. We look forward to working with the consortium and key stakeholders in the aid information space to manage handover of hosting responsibilities and build on the success we have seen to date.”

OCHA’s FTS has been publishing data on international humanitarian aid reported by donors and recipient organizations for the past 20 years. By working with IATI and meeting its standards, data reported to FTS will become more accessible, allowing technical users to convert the information into databases, spreadsheets, web applications, printed documents and data visualisations.

Read more about OCHA’s commitment to IATI in their guest blog.

For technical and implementation support please contact support@iatistandard.org

Since this agreement a common standard implementation schedule was developed and provided to Busan stakeholders for completion.

As we approach the close of 2012, the IATI Secretariat is pleased to see so many of these stakeholders, particularly IATI signatories, submitting their completed common standard implementation schedules.

Some of the schedules from key donors submitted this week include the Asian Development Bank, Canada’s CIDA, the European Commission and the United States.

For your viewing convenience, implementation schedules are being posted to a basic website as they are received. There may be minor delays in posting schedules to this list over the holiday season but please do revisit the list in the New Year for all schedules received by the end 2012 deadline.

What happens next?

Implementation schedules are intended to be evolving documents that countries/organisations can refine and improve as policy decisions on what to publish are debated and internal systems and processes develop.

In the New Year, the DCD and IATI will engage with all of those who have submitted common standard implementation schedules to discuss the various publishing approaches being taken and timing/level of improvements planned.

In a blog post on 20 December, Publish What You Fund made some general observations in relation to the published schedules at that stage and state that they will be undertaking detailed analysis. Read their blog post.

Background on the common standard

Find out more about work toward a common standard for aid information here.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has signed up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), and is now presenting information about aid contributions in a format that is compatible with industry standards and in line with other open data initiatives.

IATI is a multi-stakeholder initiative that has brought together donors, aid-recipient governments, civil society and aid information experts to agree on a common, open, international standard for publishing information about humanitarian and development aid.

“Signing up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative is a significant step towards greater accountability and data usability,” said Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. “It is a demonstration of OCHA’s commitment to transparency, which is crucial for monitoring our impact and improving our effectiveness.”

Aid data is widely used by governments for planning and financial management, as well as to improve coordination. Civil society organizations and the general public in both recipient and donor countries analyze data to improve their understanding of how and where humanitarian aid money is being used to save lives and help people in need.

OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS) has been publishing data on international humanitarian aid reported by donors and recipient organizations for the past 20 years. By working with IATI and meeting its standards, data reported to FTS will become more accessible, allowing technical users to convert the information into databases, spreadsheets, web applications, printed documents and data visualizations.

OCHA signed up to IATI in August, and began providing data according to its standard in mid-December. There are now 35 IATI signatories, including donors, multilateral organizations and UN agencies, and 22 developing country governments have endorsed IATI.

“We encourage all humanitarian organizations to explore ways of collaborating with open data initiatives,” said Ms. Amos.

Based on press release by UN OCHA. For more information please visit www.unocha.org or contact Clare Doyle, UN OCHA Deputy Spokesperson, by email on doylecm@un.org