We are pleased to announce that our review of the Aid Transparency Index assessment method has successfully concluded. We have a new Technical Paper which we will use for the 2022 Aid Transparency Index assessment.

We periodically review and update the assessment approach used for the Aid Transparency Index to ensure that it remains aligned with aid transparency standards, reflects current practice and continues to raise standards. We are also careful to ensure that changes are gradual so credible comparisons can be made with scores from previous indexes.

We began the review of the assessment method for the 2022 Index in October 2020. We aimed to make the review process consultative and transparent and to bring in the views of experts and stakeholders. With this in mind, we started with an internal reflection and analysis process that was informed by an online survey of CSOs and other data users. We then carried out several consultation meetings with aid data experts and the organisations assessed in the Index. We published a set of proposed changes in April and asked for written feedback from stakeholders and the wider public. We took this feedback on board when finalising the new Technical Paper. In total we consulted with over 50 stakeholders through in-person calls, we had 48 questions and comments on our proposal document and 26 responses to our data user survey. We have provided further details of the feedback we received and our responses here.

The main changes made to the approach for the 2022 Index are:

• A change in the scoring structure based on accessibility
• The introduction of the Networked data indicator (which also incorporates the Implementer indicator)
• A change to the IATI data quality sampling process
• Changes in the definitions of the Conditions indicator and the Pre-project impact appraisals indicator
• Small adjustments to some indicator weightings (to incorporate the Networked data indicator).

We explored several other issues including how donors can better engage with stakeholders, how donors use their own data in communications, efforts to make data more accessible and activity-to-activity traceability. After careful consideration of how additional tests might work we concluded that it wasn’t possible to accommodate these without compromising the rigour of the assessment. That being said, we are committed to continue work on the vital aspects of aid transparency through other elements of our work.

We have published the updated Technical Paper with tracked changes to make it easy to see where changes have been made. You can download this below:

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We will be carrying out the donor selection process for the 2022 Index in June and July this year and plan to announce which organisations and agencies will be included in late July.