1.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Very good
OVERVIEW
UNDP should be congratulated for making significant improvements to the quality of its publication and for updating its common standard implementation schedule to include plans for publishing 97% of the assessed IATI fields. Most of these fields are already included in UNDP’s current IATI files which are updated on a monthly basis. UNDP’s 2013 Information Disclosure Policy makes disclosure the rule rather than the exception and clarifies the nature of exceptions and the harms tests and public interest overrides these are subject to; its appeals process however is not sufficiently independent. UNDP began publishing to IATI in November 2011. It co-hosts the IATI Secretariat, leading a consortium with UNOPS, Ghana, Sweden and Development Initiatives since 2013. UNDP’s open data platform – open.undp.org – is driven by its IATI data and allows users to access and use detailed information on its projects, including budget information and project documents.
ANALYSIS
UNDP scores 90.6%, making it the top ranking agency in the 2014 Index. This commendable performance is owed to consistent improvement in information published to IATI about its activities since 2013. UNDP achieves high scores on all indicator sub-groups, scoring nearly 100% for organisation planning and financial information, activity classifications and basic information; over 85% for commitment and financial data on individual activities; and over 70% for activity-related documents and performance information (results, conditions and impact appraisals). It is one of the few organisations to publish the budget ID, which aims to help align information on development flows with recipient country budget classifications. Project documents such as contracts, tenders and MoUs have also been included in UNDP’s IATI publication since 2013. Although the coverage of information across activities is good, there are some areas for further improvement. For example, tenders are available for just over 5% of projects, whilst 15% of activities contain links to evaluations and only 30% contain results data. UNDP scores on all 39 indicators.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- UNDP should include links to project documents and results and conditions data for all projects. It should also work to promote traceability of projects implemented by its partners.
- It should update its Information Disclosure Policy to reflect best practices on independent appeals processes.
- UNDP should continue to champion aid transparency within the UN and work with other agencies to provide a full picture of all UN activities and promote the use of IATI data in its programming and coordination processes. It should also promote the access and use of this information by others.
DONOR PROFILE
First published to IATI:
Nov-11
2013 ATI Score:
83.38%
2013 ATI Rank:
4