aidinfo.org

Post-Busan group meet for the first time in Paris

Alex Beech — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:10:25 +0000

The Busan Partnership Interim Group (BPIG) met for the first time earlier this week in Paris to decide what the post-Busan architecture on aid effectiveness will look like. As well as looking at how the Busan Partnership will be implemented and managed, they are also making the important decision of what indicators will be used to monitor progress, and how these will be applied to the task at hand. One of the more popular options is a “country-heavy, global-light” mechanism that monitors progress mainly in a country-specific context. We’re keeping a keen eye on the proceedings and there are a number of key issues in this process that we feel need highlighting.Firstly, that any monitoring mechanisms used are targeted at a country level and with a small number of global indictors. It’s imperative that one of these indicators is transparency, as derived from the commitments made at Accra and Busan on transparency.Secondly, that whatever monitoring framework is used, it must be open and transparent. One way to ensure this would be to use an IATI – International Aid Transparency Initiative – approach, as opposed to the proposed monitoring survey. An IATI approach would mean that all involved parties would publish their own data in an open format to the IATI standard, as many have done in the past. All published data would then be collated to give a whole picture; this would be a far less cumbersome way of operating an open and transparent system than the use of a monitoring survey.The outcomes of this first meeting will be made public in March and we’ll be reporting on them here along with any recommendations we have for further amendments. The final draft proposal comes out in June and we’ll be covering the process on here until then... watch this space for the next instalment.

Launch of our Nepal Country Study

Victoria Room — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:30:14 +0000

This week we’re very excited to be launching work in Nepal. With the IATI standard now bearing fruit, we are increasingly turning our attention to how we can help make this information useful in aid recipient countries.

Last year, we worked with a group of interested organisations in Kathmandu to try and understand the nature of the demand for better aid information in Nepal. A series of workshops, a barcamp and a survey revealed a huge demand for information about aid. Specifically in five key areas:

More detailed information about where aid is spent in Nepal, when it is spent, how it is spent, what it is spent on, and who it is spent by.
Information that is accessible to all those who want to use it. This means information is translated into local languages, made meaningful for local contexts and uses appropriate methods and tools.
Analysis of aid information alongside other data, including looking at aid alongside other resources such as government revenue and demographic information
Capacity development and awareness raising to help different groups of people to find, understand and use information on aid that is relevant to them
Evidence and lesson sharing on the most effective methods and tools to improve the availability and accessibility of information about aid

We believe that meeting these demands requires an information ecosystem involving many actors; donors, governments, civil society organisations, parliamentarians, the media, academics and the intended beneficiaries of aid-funded projects all accessing and using the data in different ways and using this as a platform to advocate for improvements in how resources for poverty reduction are used. For the past four years we have been working with partners to find ways to catalyse and support such a system and suggest there are three essential elements:

Data that is available to everyone: data about aid should be published on the Internet according to a common, open standard
Information that is accessible to everyone: Information intermediaries are needed to make information accessible and useful for different groups of people
Capacity within organisations and individuals: to use the data and information for decision making and advocacy.

Our work in Nepal with five organisations (Freedom Forum, NGO Federation of Nepal, Alliance for Aid Monitor Nepal, CAHURAST and YIPL) aims to use this approach to find ways to:

Catalyse and support a community of organisations working to improve the transparency of aid and to meet the five demands identified during the scoping phase
Develop a set of tools and methodologies that can support the use of aid information in Nepal
Document and share policy-relevant evidence about the ways that an information ecosystem can be supported and developed, and the difference it can make.

Please watch this space for regular updates from us and our partners, download the concept note, or get involved by contacting Victoria at victoria@devinit.org

Supporting transparency; country pilots

Alex Beech — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:57:26 +0000

Now that the high profile Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and all the buzz that surrounded it is over, you’d be forgiven for thinking that things had quietened down a bit here since, but you’d be wrong. For several months now, members of the aidinfo team have been working with the International Aid Transparency Initiative* (IATI) to test how IATI will work in developing countries through a series of country pilots. The first stage of these pilots is now underway and we’ll be updating you on their progress here.In 2011 several donors began publishing their aid information in line with the IATI standard. Working in-country, we are now testing how IATI data can improve the management and accountability of aid at national level.What’s the need?Those seeking aid information in partner countries have many different needs, but there is also a lot of overlap in what they want to learn from aid data. Highest on this list is the need for timely and forward-looking data, followed by the need for information not just on where aid has been allocated, but on how it’s going to be spent.Where are we working?In three countries, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia, we are working with the government to see how IATI can improve and support the following processes for gathering aid data and information:

Through automatic data exchange into government’s own aid information management systems.
Through alignment of aid information with budgets and budget planning frameworks.
Through information sharing between new and emerging donors in the south, known as South-South Cooperation (SSC).

Our work in DRCEach pilot will work with their host governments in different ways and our activities are driven by the needs outlined by stakeholders in each country.In the DRC, where aid accounts for around 50% of the national budget, the government is monitoring aid flows into the country through three different ministries, and they face difficulties in that a lot of the information they gather is inconsistent and incomplete. Their aim is that all aid information should eventually flow through their aid information management system, to allow for consistent and centralised access to aid data that can be incorporated into their public financial management systems.The work we are doing in DRC through the IATI pilot tests how the data that donors provide in line with IATI can be used to complement and improve the existing and planned systems for aid management. We are doing this through:

Testing the viability of an automatic exchange of data from donors publishing IATI-compliant information and the DRC’s own aid information management system.
Testing how well aid data fits into the national budget.

Colombia Colombia differs vastly from DRC in terms of its aid income, with aid making up just 0.4% of their national budget. They are keen to establish where aid money goes in the country and the impact that it has on the communities that receive it. There is a strong commitment from both the Colombian government and from Colombian CSOs to monitor and publish details on aid so that they are accessible by the public. They do this through their aid information management system, which is publically accessible and user-friendly, and also through a CSO-managed database that combines data collected from the government system and directly from donors.Whilst Colombia’s system is more comprehensive and useful than many countries’ systems for collecting and collating aid data, they still face issues in this area. Firstly, while they collect a broad range of information, there are still gaps in the data which mean they cannot get a full picture of what is really being delivered to them, or for what purpose. Secondly, the nature of collecting data is inefficient, resource intensive and time-consuming. The IATI pilot in Colombia is working to establish whether collecting IATI-compliant data automatically through the government’s aid information management system can improve the quality and content of aid information gathered.Colombia is also a provider and a recipient of aid with other new and emerging donors in the south (known as South South Cooperation – SSC). Data on SSC provided by Colombia to its partners is already collected. However, work still needs to be done in order to quantify and qualify SSC information in the region.This pilot aims to understand the feasibility of collecting SSC data in the Colombian aid information management system and other information reporting systems in a format compliant with the IATI standard. The aim of this part of the pilot, aside from the ambition to capture SSC data in this way, is to understand how reporting SSC data might be different from reporting data from traditional donors.RwandaIn Rwanda, where 20% of the national budget comes from aid, the government experiences several problems in the collection of data. Namely, that the data received is inconsistent, unreliable and untimely as well as being incomplete. As a result, the government is unable to include aid figures in their budget plans or aid project plans, and so they can’t plan their national budgets or aid programmes effectively.The IATI pilot in Rwanda seeks to address these issues by offering the Rwandan government data that is automatically exchanged between their aid information management system and donor’s reporting systems. The focus is to ensure that quality data can be published regularly and fed into existing aid information management systems and processes, to improve the budgeting and planning process. Published in line with the IATI standard, this will mean both up to date and forward-looking data that can be aligned with budgetary plans. Data will also be more comprehensive, comparable and of better quality.An initial pilot study in 2010 hosted by the Rwandan government looked at the viability of implementing the IATI standard with the government’s aid information management system. The 2012 pilot, now underway, is building on this work to establish whether data generated from IATI is timelier, of improved quality and if it makes capturing and publishing data more efficient. It will also allow us to understand whether it is possible to take data published in the IATI format (including forward looking financial information) and better incorporate it into their integrated financial management system to make the government’s planning more effective.Isabel and Simon from the aidinfo team have travelled out to Rwanda this week to scope the pilot with our partners in Synergy iNternational Systems and the Rwandan Ministry of Economic Planning and Finance; we’ll have more on their progress here when they get back, so watch this space...*IATI is a multi-stakeholder initiative that works to make aid information more transparent, accessible and comparable. Through consultation with partner countries who receive aid, it has developed a standard to which donors and aid providers can publish their aid information. Designed with the intention of benefitting partner country stakeholders, the long-term benefits of publishing to a standard are that aid providers, donors and recipient country governments are more accountable, service delivery is improved and the effectiveness of aid increases. If you are new to IATI and would like to learn more you can visit their website or download this overview leaflet, supporting transparency.

Reflections on Busan

Judith Randel — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:39:13 +0000

As the dust settles on HLF4 in Busan, it’s a good time to reflect on what’s been achieved on aid transparency in the three years since the previous HLF in Accra.The first thing that struck us in Busan is that transparency has risen to the top of the political agenda, accompanied by a good understanding of the importance of promoting common standards for the publication of information, and of providing aid information that is user-centric rather than provider-focussed.We were encouraged that a number of speakers, including Denmark’s new Minister for Development Cooperation, Christian Friis Bach, recognised that improving access to information has the power to transform societies. And others, like IFRC’s Mukesh Kapila, expressed frustration with the pace of change and the need for more realistic and solid data and statistics.There was also widespread recognition of the need to view aid alongside all of the other available resources for poverty reduction, and to focus on its unique contribution within that wider context. It is clear that many of the old modalities for delivering aid are no longer pre-eminent – what President Kagame referred to as ‘structural and attitude related barriers’. The modern world is one where data and information are more accessible, where there are many more actors, often supporting development in different ways, and where there is growing respect for country ownership, not just as a matter of principle, but because it’s much more likely to be effective as Raj Shah, USAID Administrator said, moving from being a provider or assistance to being a partner in solving problems.It is clear that the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) has gained widespread recognition. Five new signatories announced their intention to join IATI during HLF4, including the US and Canada, and we also heard expressions of interest from NGOs, CSOs and private sector actors. In fact I was standing in the Starbucks queue, talking to someone from Canada that I had never met before and congratulating him on Canada joining IATI, only for him to say that his agency, UNCDF, was also in the process of signing up. What was also interesting was the range of organisations from the private sector to CSOs to researchers who could see the potential for a common standard on resource information.The fact that IATI signatories now represent over 75% of global ODA makes a huge difference, turning IATI into a mainstream Initiative and – realistically – the only available mechanism for implementing the transparency commitments set out in paragraph 23 of the Busan Global Partnership. There was a striking difference between the laborious and cumbersome processes of trading off priorities in order to get to a common outcome document and the reality that people are voting with their feet, publishing to IATI, developing ways of getting feedback and information to and from the people who are supposed to benefit from aid.The challenges ahead are first, for those who have signed IATI to implement it fully, publishing the data that people working for poverty reduction need, and second, to support greater use of that data, creating a virtuous circle with demand for better data spurring supply, with IATI as the common international standard for delivering this.Technology is already creating exciting developments in feedback – UNICEF’s project in Uganda is recruiting young people to use SMS to report on schools, water points and other facilities. 1000 young people a day are registering to use this facility and the findings are reported in the media and to parliamentarians. The power of improved access to information, and in particular the opportunities for true accountability opened up by geocoding data and making transactions transparent clearly caught the imagination of many Busan participants.But there is a much bigger picture here. We need to see the question of access to data on resources - both aid and government spending - as central to both involving and being accountable to citizens. It catches the mood of our times, where citizens everywhere are making it clear that they want better access to information to make choices and exercise control over their lives. In response, an increasing number of governments – both those who give and those who receive aid – are becoming much more open, as highlighted by the launch of the Open Aid Partnership in Busan.We believe that access to information must be part of the agenda for post 2015, going beyond delivery of services to empowering citizens to have choices take more control of their lives. It struck me that transparency is an issue where the technical meets the transformative. Supplying better data to a common standard is something that donors can actually do quickly and easily - it is not like overcoming centuries of gender discrimination or resolving longstanding conflicts. And the use of that information is genuinely transformative - not just because it improves aid effectiveness and efficiency, but because it also transforms the power relationships around the table.

Busan: A good outcome on transparency

Alex Beech — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:20:45 +0000

There’s plenty to celebrate here at aidinfo as HLF4 ends in Busan today. Transparency has been the issue of the day, and the subject on everyone’s lips – for example, in his speech to today’s plenary, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Christian Friis Bach emphasised the importance of access to information, noting its power to change societies should not be underestimated.For us, the highlight of the week as been the flurry of interest from new donors in signing up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), with Canadian CIDA, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US, CDC and UNCDF all joining IATI during this week’s Forum.Transparency was also one of the most hotly contested issues during protracted negotiations on the Busan Outcome Document. The language included in the final text, released today as the Busan Partnership for Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, inevitably represents a compromise, and is, in some respects, weaker than earlier drafts.Despite this, there is much to welcome:Transparency (and accountability) has been accepted as one of a number of shared principles that form the foundation of effective development cooperation (para 11d);Progress in making aid more transparent is acknowledged (para 15);And the crucial paragraph on transparency (23) includes a commitment to:c) Implement a common, open standard for electronic publication of timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information on resources provided through development co-operation, taking into account the statistical reporting of the OECDCDAC and the complementary efforts of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and others. This standard must meet the information needs of developing countries and non-state actors, consistent with national requirements. We will agree on this standard and publish our respective schedules to implement it by December 2012, with the aim of implementing it fully by December 2015. As a result of this week’s announcements, IATI signatories already account for 75% of ODA, and we believe that the text above provides a solid foundation for further progress in the coming months. The priorities now are for donors who have not yet joined IATI to do so, for those who have signed IATI to implement it, and for increased use of IATI data to create a virtuous circle, providing much-needed feedback from those who benefit from aid to those who provide it in order to maximise the impact of aid on poverty reduction.We will post further reflections on the outcome of HLF4 when our team return from Busan next week.

US announce their commitment to aid transparency initiative

Alex Beech — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:14:06 +0000

Fantastic news from HLF4 in Busan this morning, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing that the US has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).Following similar announcements by Canadian CIDA, CDC and the Inter-American Development Bank in Busan yesterday, this brings the total number of IATI signatories to 26.The US is the world’s largest bilateral donor with annual aid commitments of $30bn. With Canada and the US on board, IATI signatories now account for 75% of global Official Development Assistance (ODA).This latest news, combined with the fact that thirteen signatories and six further organisations have begun publishing their aid information to the IATI Registry, demonstrates that IATI is gaining momentum.The US has been engaged in the IATI process from the outset as an observer, and has already taken a number of steps to increase the transparency of its aid information such as the launch of the US Foreign Assistance Dashboard.Publication to IATI’s common, open standard will make this information much easier to find, use and compare. This in turn will help donors and developing country governments to plan and manage precious aid resources more effectively, and maximise the impact of aid in reducing poverty. And it will help parliaments, civil society organisations and citizens in both aid-giving and aid-receiving countries to hold their governments to account for aid spending.We urge all remaining donors to join IATI as a crucial step towards increasing the effectiveness of their aid.

The open data revolution comes to aid – Guest blog from Owen Barder

Alex Beech — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:14:26 +0000

Today we have a guest blog from Owen Barder, well-known development blogger and Senior Fellow and Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development. More than two thousand delegates have gathered today in Busan, South Korea, for the fourth installment of a succession of meetings aimed at making aid more effective.There has been significant progress since the meeting in Accra in 2008 towards improving transparency of aid. This is important because it’s a pre-requisite for achieving all the aid effectiveness principles. Jamie Drummond from the ONE campaign explains this very well in the Huffington Post.The challenge is to provide information to people at country level. Our existing aid information systems are mainly designed to enable donors to share information with each other, not to meet the needs of people in developing countries.But the information needs at country level are hugely diverse, both between and within developing countries. Within governments, the information needs of the finance ministry are different from the needs of line ministries. The needs of parliamentarians, civil society, media and citizens are all different again. It is impractical for donors to try to meet the needs of every niche interest with their own subset of the data in a particular format.뜻이 있는 곳에 길이 있다 (where there’s a will there’s a way)Here’s the technical bit: the way to serve all these different needs for information without massive duplication and bureaucracy is to separate the data from the interface. An open, standardised, detailed, shared data layer can support a whole range of different applications, tailored to specific users.That is why it is so exciting that the open data revolution is coming to aid. In 2008, in a side-meeting in Accra, a coalition of willing donors, developing countries, foundations and NGOs made a declaration which launched the International Aid Transparency Initiative. A lot of that data is now being published – countries accounting for nearly half of global aid are now publishing through IATI, and that proportion will grow in the coming months.If you are in Busan this week, and you want to know how IATI works, the IATI secretariat will be doing a briefing at 5pm on Wednesday, in room KW202 (I’m making a guest appearance to show off some beta software, so do come along and laugh at me when it doesn’t work).천릿길은 한 걸음부터 (A 1000-li journey starts with one step)Transparency by itself does not lead to more accountability, less waste, or better coordination. That happens when people are able to use the information. The extent to which they are able to do so depends on their context, including the political and administrative climate. Open data won’t automatically make organisations responsive, but will greatly reduce the difficulty and cost for citizens of taking the data and turning it into something meaningful and useful.With an open aid data platform now in place, huge opportunities are being opened. We can use the standard to introduce traceability of aid as it passes from organisation to organisation. We can improve the quality and detail of the data that is collected and publish it through these systems.Reporting of aid data should be not just by donors but by NGOs, private sector implementing agencies and foundations. The mechanisms for sharing information can be extended beyond aid to other kinds of resources for poverty reduction. We can add detailed geo-coding, to enable aid projects and programmes to be mapped, and better coordinated. We can begin to compare across aid programmes and across countries. We can mix aid information with other data from other sources.The twenty four donors who have signed IATI should be congratulated for their efforts to make data available. The payoff from that effort will come when we all start to use the data to understand aid better: to see what is working and what is not, and to hold the aid system to account, so leading to improvements in the effectiveness of aid. IATI removes the most significant barriers to entry for a wide range of diverse applications.The next step is to nurture and encourage an ecosystem of civil society groups, parliamentarians, researchers, think tanks, academics, governments, private sector organisation, media and hackers, all accessing and using the information in different ways, and using this as a platform to push for improvements in how resources for poverty reduction are used. The new Open Aid Partnership is an example of an initiative of this kind: the door is now open for many more.We can now look forward to the day when we take for granted the ubiquitous availability of aid data. We will soon forget that it was ever a struggle to find out about aid projects in a developing country, or to follow the money through NGOs and implementing partners. Having laid these important foundations, we will be able to move on to much more important and exciting innovations which support people in developing countries to use and repurpose this information and use it to change their world.

Canada makes transparency announcement from Busan

Alex Beech — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:51:24 +0000

Exciting news from Busan, where Canada’s Minister for International Cooperation, Beverly Oda, has just announced that Canada has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).This brings the total number of IATI signatories up to 23, including 13 bilateral donors, seven multilateral organisations, two global programmes and one foundation. Together, IATI signatories account for two-thirds of official development flows.Canada has been involved in IATI from the outset as an observer – the decision to join shows that IATI is gaining momentum.We’d like to congratulate Engineers Without Borders Canada, who have campaigned tirelessly for Canada to join IATI, and have shown their commitment to “walk the talk” by becoming one of the first NGOs to publish their own data to the IATI Registry.The aidinfo team at Development Initiatives have helped to develop and promote IATI because we believe that publication of aid information to a common, open standard will help everyone involved in the aid business do their jobs better, and ensure that aid achieves maximum impact on poverty.Access to aid information is also essential for parliaments, civil society organisations and citizens who want hold their governments to account for public expenditure – whether they are tax-payers in donor countries who want to ensure value for money, or representatives of communities receiving aid, who want to be able to track aid spending on the ground to ensure that funds reach those they are intended for.It’s clear from our recent case studies in Kenya that citizens and CSOs are increasingly demanding this information, and that organisations such as the Social Development Network (SODNET) are using the tools and networks available to people on the ground -including SMS, radio, church groups - to monitor service-delivery, and pass on complaints to policy-makers via the internet.This confirms that there is real demand for better aid information at country level, and that when people have access to that kind of information, they know how to use it.IATI has the potential to make that information available to them - what we need now is for more donors to embrace IATI’s approach and sign up to the initiative - we hope that others will do so this week in Busan.

Kenyans demand transparency about public spending

Matt Bartlett — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:49:55 +0000

Kenyan citizens are increasingly calling for access to clear and reliable information on public spending, including expenditure that is funded from international aid.Our latest collection of case studies and videos from Kenya attempts to increase our understanding of the issues facing citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) who wish to access information about public spending, and who operate in a country where just over 10% of government expenditure comes from aid.It’s this knowledge that drives us forward towards the 4^th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan this week. A successful outcome for those who benefit from aid must include a specific, time-bound commitment to increase the transparency of aid information, and to publish that information in line with the common, open standard developed by the International Aid Transparency Initiative.This is a crucial step towards supporting citizens to hold their governments accountable for the way they spend public funds, including aid resources. When governments are more accountable, public spending is more effective and citizens are able to monitor and direct services that can greatly improve their lives.Angela Kageni is the Senior Programme Officer at Aidspan, a CSO based in Kenya. Aidspan work to, amongst other functions, track the flow of aid money from when it is dispersed to the point it reaches the ground.Kageni says:

Finding out how resources are being used at the country-level is a real challenge, but it is vital in making sure that what goes into the system is what comes out. It can be a bit difficult to track money right through the system. To be able to identify progress and analyse performance, and thus hold those using the money accountable, you need to know what money is coming in and how that money is being used.

Our new case studies illustrate these points only too well. By enabling ordinary people to use whatever means of communication are available to them – including mobile phones, local radio stations, places of worship and schools - CSOs in Kenya are witnessing a growing thirst for government accountability.Given the opportunity to report hospitals with no medicines, pumps with no water or schools with no teachers, people are stepping forward to register their complaints. Organisations like the Social Development Network (SODNET) are then analysing complaints against budgets and passing the information on to policy-makers via the internet.The National Taxpayers' Association (NTA), Twaweza and Uwezo also encourage people to monitor local spending on services like water provision, schools, health and infrastructure and to record their findings. The organisations are then analysing this information against government spending data and sharing it with policy-makers.By monitoring public spending, including the proportion funded by aid, the Kenyan people can ensure that they are benefiting from the services they are owed as citizens.Journalists like Luke Anami of Kenya's leading daily newspaper, The Standard, are getting involved and demanding more and better information. He says:

Often, even if information is available, it is not always accurate.

He calls on CSOs for information about public spending from the grass roots that is not available elsewhere.Reliable data about public resource flows in Kenya is not only hard to get hold of but is also often presented in a complex and inaccessible manner. Delays in the release of information about public spending – which may often be incomplete – further undermine timely analysis.Our new case studies highlight the demands of citizens and CSOs in developing countries for greater access to aid information. They illustrate what can be achieved when this need is met. And they challenge those who are meeting in Busan next week to take action on improving access to aid information.As Kwame Owino, CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

The importance of accurate data can’t be overstated. We as civil society need to be able to contribute to the public debate about policy, while the public need it in order to hold the authorities to account and to participate in their own governance.

View our new Kenyan case studies and videos to find out more.

Oxfam GB commits to aid transparency initiative

Alex Beech — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:48:01 +0000

This week we have a guest blog from Paul Clough, Head of International Finance at Oxfam GB. Ahead of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in South Korea, Oxfam GB has become one of the first INGOs to publish their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Paul Clough, Head of International Finance at Oxfam GB talks us through their decision to publish in this way and looks at their next steps over the coming months. Why publish Oxfam data?Oxfam is committed to being accountable to our key stakeholders, in particular people living in poverty. For some time, we have wanted to support this commitment by publishing our programme data and IATI provided us with a common data format to work towards that will allow people to compare different organisations across the sector.The decision to publish our data was also largely driven by our Open Information Policy which was updated in July this year. The policy states Oxfam’s commitment to proactively publish information in order to be transparent and accountable.Publishing this information will also become a condition for receiving some funds from donors in future, including DFID.What have we published so far?Our first wave of published data includes most international projects that were active in 2010/11 and were not primarily programme support. The data covers currently 834 projects in 54 countries and contains both financial information and short descriptions.In line with our new Open Information Policy and the Programme Partnership Arrangements we decided to publish data relating to all our international projects rather than just DFID-funded projectsSome projects have been omitted from publication to avoid any risk to staff security or any harm to our operations. All exclusions from publication are outlined in our Open Information policy.In addition to the data we are sharing today, we’re also aware of the need to publish relevant project documents. In 2010 we published a selection of programme evaluations on our website for the first time. There are now 98 evaluation reports available to download on our site. We expect this number to grow towards 2013 as we strive to be more transparent about the impact of our programmes.What were the challenges?Oxfam is lucky to already have a single effective system that manages our projects, finances and donor contracts. However we still faced some tough decisions: which projects should be considered sensitive, was the quality of our data good enough and which parts should we publish first.The technical challenge of converting the raw data into XML and mapping to IATI standards was greater than expected, but we overcame this hurdle.Finally we faced the issue of how the information will be understood externally – the source of the data is from internal systems, designed for internal consumption using organisational terminology that may not be easily understood by an external audience.Committing to publishing our data as it is on a rolling basis will help us to develop our internal systems to improve data extraction and validation processes, as well as the standard of data being added to the system. Knowing the data will ultimately go public should help with this process.This is just the first stepBy April 2013 we plan to expand the information on our projects and move to publishing at quarterly intervals rather than annually. We will also aim to improve the quality of the data published and reduce the level of exclusions.We are also looking at doing some data visualisation work to support our accountability communications to stakeholders. We already do some of this in our annual reports but only at a global level, producing infographics from this data would be a great way to show how and where Oxfam is having an impact in the lives of poor people.Read more about the project on Oxfam’s Policy & Practice websiteYou can view the full Oxfam GB data set now via the IATI registry.