This blog was originally posted on IATI’s website. It is written by James Coe (Publish What You Fund), Annelise Parr (IATI Secretariat & UNDP) and Reid Porter (InterAction). Last month, Ghana hosted the second Africa Open Data Conference (AODC). The event sought to showcase the thriving open data community on the continent, bringing together open data […]
When the US made the important commitment to aid transparency in Busan in 2011, it was applauded as a significant step toward more effective, evidence-based foreign assistance. The transparency road has been a bit bumpy, but some recent work by USAID in Bangladesh gives us some important reasons to cheer.
Maintained, machine-readable versions of the DAC and CRS code lists are now available as CSV and JSON! Here’s how Publish What You Fund and Open Knowledge made it happen… The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) maintains a set of code lists – including the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) – used by donors to report on their aid flows. These […]
The 2018 foreign assistance cuts proposed by the Trump Administration have set off significant debates about the priorities for US investments abroad. Moreover, with ambitious reviews of both the Department of State and USAID about to begin, there are even more questions about how the US can most effectively deliver foreign assistance. As both the Administration and Congress make decisions on the shape and size of this agenda, it is vital that they possess a solid understanding of the impact of their decisions, both domestically and abroad. This requires access to quality foreign assistance data.
Location data matters. Despite being one of the least published pieces of data on the IATI Standard, it is consistently highlighted as one of the most important. Without information on where donors are spending their money, aid practitioners are less able to avoid project duplication or identify gaps in funding. As part of the recent Tool Accelerator Workshop, organized by the Initiative for Open Ag Funding, a team of staff from GlobalGiving, Development Gateway and Publish What You Fund worked together to see if we could enhance and simplify the publication of this vital, yet lacking, data.
Next week experts, civil society and donors will gather in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to attend the 2017 International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting. The purpose of the four day event is to discuss pressing issues surrounding the IATI Standard – be they political, advocacy-related or technical. Holding such an event […]
