IATI TAG 2017

This session is designed to communicate how the IATI Technical Team plans to best offer useful functionality to publishers and users of IATI data.

The first part of this session will outline the long and short term plans for each of the 15+ public tools and websites that we currently maintain.  This will be based on our recent post on the IATI Discussion forums.

Thereafter, we will facilitate discussion and feedback on the direction of future tools, looking at:

• What functionality should we definitely keep?

• What should be improved?

• What should be added?

Please note that whilst the official IATI Datastore will be covered within this session, there will be a separate session to look at this product in depth: The future of the official IATI Datastore: Gathering user needs

    This past fall I interviewed key stakeholders in Liberia and Sierra Leone on their data needs for aid transparency, and the majority of the respondents wanted to be able to use information to monitor projects and inform citizens about what is happening in their countries and communities. In this session we will put ourselves in their shoes and see if IATI data allows us to discover if projects happened the way they were supposed to. We will examine 3 differnent projects occuring in the same year, country, and sector, but reported by 3 differenct organizations. As a group we will examing if the content is sufficient to monitor projects, what is an IATI strength or weakness versus a reporting strength or weakness, and then we will then talk about how the information is displayed and if it is user friendly. Throughout the session we will dicuss if there are steps we can take to make IATI data easier to use and ensure it is fit for purpose. 

IATI can have value in many different ways. One of them is to share and pro-actively show the work you are doing publicly.

• How can you do this best? 
• How can you make use of the standard’s fields and which information would you like to add and how? 
• How can this relate to your existing communication channels (e.g. website) and fundraising? 

Marten will share how Akvo’s ‘Really Simple Reporting’ platform is set up and will facilitate an exploration with you how you can make IATI work for your organisation’s communication.

In February 2017, the Open Ag Funding Partnership in partnership with DFID held a tool accelerator workshop to develop advanced data tools for the publication and use of IATI data. In attendance were Development Initiatives, Zimmerman & Zimmerman, D-Portal, Spatial Dev, Young Innovations, and others. In this session, we will share what the accelerator taught us about developing tools for IATI, share prototypes for feedback, and discuss how our approach can be replicated for other sectors and types of IATI data.

This session will look specifically at challenges and potential solutions for in-country civil society partners faced with engaging with IATI. It will propose a set of good practice principles for donors and accountable organisations wanting to engage their partners on IATI, as both producers and consumers of IATI data. These are based on our experience of working with civil society organisations in different geographical locations, including East and West Africa. Participants will be invited to sense-check these principles during the session.