Why does IATI matter for partner countries?
More than 40 countries have established Aid Information Management Systems (AIMS) and the number is growing. These have either been produced from turn-key solutions, like the Aid Management Platform or the Development Assistance Database, or are home-grown systems.
aidinfo have provided a list of aid databases on their website.
Many others collect information on aid flows from donors and other providers of assistance in Excel or Access databases. Their efforts, however, are undermined by the lack of timely, comparable, detailed and accessible data. This is where IATI can help.
The documents from the last Partner Country meeting in July 2011 are now on our resources page and in our resources archive.
We have put together an IATI communications pack in French and Spanish, you can download the documents here:
- Apoyar la transparencia de la ayuda
- Transformación de vidas gracias al acceso a los datos sobre la ayuda
- Informe actualizado de la IATI – Secretaría de la IATI, setiembre de 2011
- Contenido del sitio web de la Iniciativa Internacional para la Transparencia de la Ayuda – Plantilla para signatarios y países adherentes
- Soutenir la transparence de l’aide
- L’Accès aux données sur l’aide transforme des vies
- Mise à jour sur l’IITA – secrétariat de l’IITA, septembre 2011
- Texte sur l’Initiative internationale pour la transparence de l’aide à publier en ligne - Modèle pour les pays signataires et les pays partenaires
The documents for the next Partner Country meeting on October 4 2011 can be downloaded here:
Draft Agenda for IATI Partner Country Meeting 4 October
Participants list – IATI Partner Country Meeting 4 October
Background note for IATI Partner Country Meeting 4 October
Analytical Study - South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Improving Information and Data
How will IATI help?
IATI enhances the current efforts by partner countries to collect information. It has done this by agreeing a common 4-part standard on the publication of aid data, outlining:
- The scope of what will be published
- Common definitions
- Common data exchange framework
- A framework for implementation
These parts have been tailored to meet the needs of partner countries, particularly:
- The provision of detailed information at the project level.
- An ability to link closer to budgets of recipient countries, with ongoing work to develop a ‘recipient budget identifier’.
- The publication of policy and project-related documents, including information on aid results and conditions.
Partner countries can now use information published by the standard, including by importing it in their AIMS. The experience from the 2010 pilots in 5 countries – Burkina Faso, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi and Rwanda – demonstrates how this can be accomplished (see the country pilot synthesis report).
Using this data will lead to diminished costs, time and efforts for governments and donors who manually enter data into local AIMS or databases. Focus is placed on further improving information by aligning it more closely to local needs. Governments, Parliaments, civil society organisations and other actors can all use this information with effective results.
Partner country stories
A rising number of partner countries are developing mechanisms to help them implement commitments on the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action. Mutual accountability and aid transparency measures are being included as part of the core set of performance targets and indicators for development assistance providers.
Transparency allows for effective mutual and domestic accountability. This is particularly the case with regard to the allocation, use and monitoring of the results of aid and other official flows.
Read the stories below to find more about the importance of aid transparency to developing country governments:
You can also visit our resources page to read about the experiences and lessons shared by partner countries.