Summary of Accountable Grant proposal from DIPR for support
to IATI – October 2012 to March 2013
Qs 3 & 4, FY 2012/13
1) TAG Work plan and budget
i)
Maintain and develop IATI standard
ii)
Manage and host IATI registry
iii)
Support implementation at country level
iv)
Support donor implementation
v)
Broadening membership and participation
vi)
Promoting accessibility
vii)
TAG Secretariat functions
Sub-total
2) Outreach and communications
i)
IATI website
ii)
Producing communications materials
iii)
Outreach strategy
Sub-total
3) IATI Secretariat support
TOTAL
Amount
£30,500
£36,850
£57,800
£86,000
£19,000
£7,400
£24,200
£261,750
£23,500
£6,800
£11,000
£41,300
£7,000
£310,050
Accountable Grant Proposal from Development Initiatives Poverty Research (DIPR)
for technical and administrative support for the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of
the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and for outreach and
communications work on IATI, October 2012 – March 2013
Purpose
The purpose of this grant application is to seek further funding from DFID for continuing technical
and administrative support for IATI’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG), including acting as the TAG
Secretariat and managing the TAG work plan and budget, plus ongoing outreach and
communications work on IATI.
Background on this proposal
DIPR has had an accountable grant to support the DFID-hosted International Aid Transparency
Initiative (IATI) secretariat since FY 2009/10. This grant arrangement covered three distinct areas of
support for IATI:



communications (including the website);
acting as the Secretariat for the Technical Advisory Group (TAG);
managing the TAG budget and workstreams, including management of consultants
contracted to undertake technical work on IATI.
It was initially envisaged that IATI would be a time-limited initiative, running between HLF 3 in 2008
to HLF 4 in 2011, and that the IATI and TAG secretariat would be hosted in a new institution after
Busan. Due to changes to the aid effectiveness architecture and the establishment of a new Global
Partnership, the decision to re-host IATI has been delayed until 2013.
It is still a critical time for IATI, with the clear endorsement from Busan, and reaching critical mass
with membership. Substantial technical work is required to support implementation of signatories,
and ensure it is adding value at country-level. In addition, work is required to reach agreement on
the Busan common standard and support publication of implementation schedules of all Busan
endorsees.
The IATI Secretariat and Steering Committee have already considered the overall budget for IATI for
FY 2012/13. This proposal should therefore be read alongside this document.
This revised accountable grant application covers the six-month period 1st October 2012 to 31st
March 2013, and amounts to £310,050. The initial 12-month proposal was for £589,900.
The budget covers the following areas of work:





Supporting all current signatories to implement IATI, and common standard commitments;
IATI annual report;
Supporting existing publishers to improve the range and quality of their IATI data, in
preparation for self-reporting and publication of IATI’s first annual report;
Review and improvement of licensing monitoring;
Expand IATI’s membership and implementation through outreach to non-members (donors
and NGOs);






Continuing IATI pilots in Rwanda, DRC, Nepal, Honduras and Colombia;
Work with DCD and WP-STAT to confirm details of the common standard agreed at Busan
(BPd para 23c) and supporting plans for Busan endorsers to publish schedules;
Contribute to discussions on the emerging Global Partnership, offering IATI as a means of
monitoring agreed indicators and targets as appropriate;
Finalise and improve documentation and streamline processes in preparation for handover
of TAG function;
Improvements to registry and the IATI website;
Improve communications and collaboration with TAG;
Background on IATI
Busan was a turning point for IATI, with the endorsement of the outcome document, and the
announcement that the US, along with Canada and IADB, would sign. IATI now has 33 donor
signatories and 22 endorsements from developing countries, and will most likely be the common
standard that all Busan endorsees will work towards.
IATI signatories and Steering Committee members have agreed a common standard for the
publication of aid information. There are four parts to the IATI standard: (1) agreement on what will
be published, (2) common definitions for sharing information, (3) a common electronic data format,
and (4) a Framework for Implementation.
Publication to the IATI standard will make aid information easier to find, understand, use and
compare. The IATI standard builds on existing standards, including those used by the OECD-DAC’s
Creditor Reporting System whilst offering clear added value, including:







more comprehensive coverage from a wider range of actors
publication of forward-looking data, including budgets and forecast disbursements;
more timely data, updated at least quarterly;
Information will be published in a way that can be reconciled with the financial year of the
recipient country, and IATI is supporting further work to align data with countries’ own
budget classifications;
more detailed information at the level of individual activities or projects;
publication of key documents, as well as statistics;
optional publication of detailed geographical information.
Above all, IATI adds value by establishing a common, open format for the publication of aid
information which means that this information can be used and combined with other data by many
different users for many different purposes.
There are now 81 organisations publishing data in an IATI-format. Meanwhile, new donors are
preparing to join IATI while others are planning to publish their data in an IATI-compliant format
without joining (eg the Gates Foundation). In addition, more NGOs are expressing interest in
publishing their information to the IATI standard, and work on a TAG Working group on NGOs is now
underway.
IATI has clearly reached a critical point in its development and requires further support to ensure
that it delivers its full potential. The priorities are first, to support existing signatories in
implementing IATI and improving the data that is published; and second to broaden the scope of the
initiative to cover a wider range of aid providers. In addition, this proposal envisages DIPR
continuing its role with regard to IATI outreach and communications, including:




Contribute to discussions on the emerging Global Partnership, and proposals on future
hosting once the details of the Global Partnership have been finalised;
Hosting, updating and managing the content of the IATI website;
Producing communications materials aimed at increasing the profile of IATI;
Supporting political outreach to new donors.
Detailed proposals
1) TAG work plan and budget
i)
Maintain and develop the IATI standard
DIPR will continue to maintain and develop the standard, and ongoing improvements to the
iatistandard.org website. This includes work relating to establishing a common Busan standard.
Related guidance and support materials will also be written for the knowledge base, as support
materials for implementation.
Activities
 Work with DAC to align CRS and IATI and agree a common standard
 Develop and extend the standard and update the schema and documentation as necessary,
including translation of the standard and code lists. This will include work to align standards
being developed in the humanitarian sector and for private foundation, as well as work to
establish a common standard with agreement of the DAC CRS team.
 Complete work on budget alignment and organisation identifiers.
 Ensure that organisations working to comply with the IATI standard have access to relevant,
high quality information through developing and maintaining the website for IATI standard
schema, guidance and other standard-related documentation;
Outputs
 An agreed Busan common standard
 Guidance materials published and support function maintained;
 Development of the codelist API, specifically to server 'dev' codelists
 Expert XML review for our change process
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff & contractor costs (27 days)
Licensing the IATI product
Develop and maintain standard (contractor costs)
Sub-total
£11,100
£2,000
£3,150
£16,250
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff & contractor costs (27 days)
Develop and maintain standard (contractor costs)
Sub-total
£11,100
£3,150
£14,250
Subtotal for Maintaining and Developing the Standard
£30,500
ii)
Host and manage IATI registry
The IATI Registry functions as a central index with links to the data published to the IATI standard by
participating donors. Its successful maintenance and management is therefore essential to IATI.
Further development and maintenance will be required during the financial year. In addition, it is
proposed that we establish an improved method for providing access to the data by collecting it
centrally.
Activities
 Host the iatiregistry.org website;
 Maintain the registry
 Improve the function of registry to provide access to all IATI data, regardless of the source.
Output
 Improved functionality for organisations registering, either manually or through an API to
the registry;
 Improved functionality for users of data;
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (5.5 days)
Registry development
Hosting IATI registry
Sub-total
£1,925
£15,000
£750
£17,675
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (5.5 days)
Registry modifications
Hosting IATI registry
Sub-total
£1,925
£15,000
£750
£17,675
Sub-total for Hosting and Managing the IATI registry
£36,850
iii)
Support country implementation, including through pilots
IATI’s success rests on its ability to make a difference at the country level. Some pilots have begun
during 2012 but have not progressed as fast as expected – mainly due to partner countries
timetables. We have done some initial work on automatic exchange in DRC, undertaken scoping
work in Rwanda and Nepal, and started to assess the feasibility and opportunities for south-south
cooperation on Honduras and Colombia.
Activities
 Technical work on the AIMS;





Monitoring and evaluation process
2 DRC visits
2 follow up Rwanda visits
Colombia and Honduras visits
Nepal country work consultancy
Outputs
 Revised systems and processes to handle IATI compliant data;
 Assessment of the challenges, costs and benefits of using IATI compliant data to support
country processes;
 Paper outlining the systems and processes required to use IATI-compliant data to add value
to country aid management processes
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (13 days)
Country work (from Qs 1 & 2) including Nepal consultancy, and
DRC, Colombia and Honduras visits
Sub-total
£4,050
£24,950
£29,000
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (13 days)
Travel for DRC, Rwanda, DRC, Colombia
Consultancy work for country pilots
Sub-total
£4,050
£12,000
£12,750
£28,800
Sub-total for Support to Country Implementation
£57,800
iv)
Support signatory implementation and data quality improvement
Supporting existing signatories to implement IATI is a top priority, and DIPR will continue to provide
technical support via the IATI standard website, implementation workshops, telecons and, where
necessary, individual visits to participating donors.
Activities
 Continue to improve process around implementation support, and establish an approach to
make support scalable through development of support partnerships;
 Develop implementation and schema guidance;
 Provide support for data providers to complete implementation schedules and support
donor implementation;
 Establish and support partners to provide support to signatories where appropriate;
 Develop tools to support implementation, including conversion tools;
 Develop tools to monitor compliance;
 Monitor and review of published data: assess compliance against the standard, publishers’
implementation schedules and identify areas for improvement.
Outputs
 Implementation workshops;
 Implementation schedules completed by a majority of signatories and updated;
 Guidance and tools for supporting data providers and other support partners;






A compliance tool for data providers;
Tools to convert data into IATI XML format;
Further publishers assisted in implementing IATI;
Data review reports for each signatory, and summary reports that provide an overview of
the coverage, compliance and quality of data published.
IATI annual report
Transfer IATI implementation schedules to common standard implementation schedules
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff & contractor costs (107 days)
Transfer IATI implementation schedules to common standard
implementation schedules
Donor visits
Sub-total
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff & contractor costs (107 days)
Develop tools and content to support donor implementation
and monitor donor compliance
Donor visits
Sub-total
Sub-total for Supporting Donor Implementation
v)
£35,250
£2,000
£3,500
£40,750
£35,250
£6,000
£4,000
£45,250
£86,000
Broadening membership and participation
We will continue to seek to broaden membership of IATI by assessing the technical feasibility and
impact of the IATI standard on new types of donor including NGOs, foundations, global programmes
and providers of South-South cooperation, and supporting them to implement IATI. There is also an
intention to work with OCHA and Foundation Centre who are developing similar standards.
Activities
 Establish and support partners to provide support to non-signatories;
 Attend NGO workshops organised by DFID, PARTOS, BOND and the INGO Accountability
Charter (etc.);
 Support BOND with NGO implementation;
 Support Foundation Centre with mapping and publication of IATI-compliant data;
 Provide technical implementation support to organisations wanting to publish IATI data,
where possible.
Outputs
 Production of guidance notes for CSOs on implementing IATI;
 Production of guidance materials for other types of donor wanting to implement IATI;
 A group of NGOs implementing IATI and publishing compliant data
 A group of foundations publishing IATI-compliant data through Foundation Centre.
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff and contractor costs (30 days)
£8,000
Travel
Sub-total
£1,500
£9,500
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff and contractor costs (30 days)
Travel
Sub-total
£8,000
£1,500
£9,500
Sub-total for broadening membership and participation
£19,000
vi)
Promoting accessibility
Simply increasing the availability of aid information is a necessary step but it cannot alone guarantee
positive development outcomes. For this to happen, that information must be made more accessible
to a wider range of users. Whilst this isn’t the role of IATI, as it relies on information intermediaries
who can take the raw data and develop a variety of tools to make this information much more
accessible, IATI has a role to lay the foundations to lower the barrier for these intermediaries. Over
the grant period, we will continue to raise awareness amongst potential intermediaries and support
their efforts to make data more accessible.
Activities
 Promote availability of accessibility tools;
 Supporting users of IATI data and facilitating a user ecosystem.
 Develop guidance to intermediaries for using the data
Outputs
 Applications to demonstrate how IATI data can be made accessible;
 A strong community of developers working with IATI data;
 Guidance materials for using data.
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR contractor costs (6 days)
Promoting accessibility at open data conferences
Sub-total
£2,700
£1,000
£3,700
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR contractor costs (6 days)
Promoting accessibility at open data conferences
Sub-total
£2,700
£1,000
£3,700
Sub-total for Promoting Accessibility
vii)
£7,400
TAG staff costs
DIPR will continue to lead the TAG’s work in this area, and will also administrate the contract for
Brian Hammond as Chair of the TAG.
Costs Q3 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs, inc Chair (18.5 days)
Travel
£10,600
£1,500
Sub-total
£12,100
Costs Q4 FY 2012/13
DIPR staff costs, inc Chair (18.5 days)
Travel
Sub-total
£10,600
£1,500
£12,100
Sub-total for Managing the TAG
£24,200
TOTAL FOR TAG WORK
£261,750
2) Outreach and communications
As indicated above, there are three elements to the work proposed under this heading.
i)
Hosting, updating and managing the content of the IATI website
It is proposed that DIPR continues to host the IATI website, undertake routine maintenance plus
update and manage content. The website is an essential tool for communicating with IATI’s
stakeholders and it is vital that users find it easy to navigate, and with relevant, up-to-date content.
Activities
 Update news and other content on a regular basis;
 Maintain an IATI twitter feed and Facebook page;
 Continue hosting the IATI website;
 Undertake routine maintenance of the website.
Costs Q3 FY2012/13
Update and maintain website - DIPR staff (5 days)
Website review (from Qs 1 & 2)
Website review completion
Hosting costs (quarter of £1,000 pa)
Sub-total
£1,500
£10,000
£10,000
£250
£21,750
Costs Q4 FY2012/13
Update and maintain website – (DIPR staff 5 days)
Hosting costs (quarter of £1,000 pa)
Sub-total
£1,500
£250
£1,750
Sub-total for Hosting, Maintaining and Updating the IATI website
£23,500
ii)
Producing outreach and communications materials on IATI
In 2011 DIPR made a significant investment in outreach and communications materials, including
production of an IATI video and a communications pack for HLF4 in Busan. These existing materials
will need to be kept updated to ensure they remain current, and there is still an identified need to
produce a small number of additional materials explaining at a practical level how new – and
potential – members can implement IATI. In addition, we envisage the need for briefing materials
explaining how IATI can contribute to the Global Partnership, and how it relates to these new
institutional arrangements.
Activities


Update existing communications materials to ensure they remain current;
Produce a step-by-step guide on how new members can implement IATI;
Outputs

A step-by-step guide to IATI implementation produced;
Costs Q3 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (5 days)
Comms
Sub-total
£1,500
£3,800
£5,300
Costs Q4 2012/13
DIPR staff costs (5 days)
Sub-total
£1,500
£1,500
Sub-total for Producing Communications and Outreach Materials
£6,800
iii)
Outreach strategy
IATI reached critical mass at HLF4, with IATI signatories now representing 75% of official
development finance. The Busan Partnership document requires all who agreed it to draw up
implementation schedules for publication of their aid information in the common, open standard by
the end of December 2012. This will again require substantial investment in outreach to Busan
endorsers particularly in quarter 3, including remaining DAC non-signatories and EU non-DAC
members, plus exploration of how the IATI standard could, potentially, offer a means of capturing
information on South-South Cooperation.
In addition, DIPR has already supported ten non-signatories to implement IATI, and is working
closely with BOND to support a large number of UK NGOs to become IATI compliant, as well as
supporting the work of the IATI CSO working group. Some of our work in this area is included under
TAG work stream above. In addition, as members of the IATI Secretariat, we propose to develop and
manage a political outreach strategy which encompasses both traditional and non-traditional
donors, informing them about the added-value that IATI offers and encouraging them to join the
Initiative and publish their data to the IATI standard.
Activities
 Develop and implement a post-Busan outreach strategy for IATI;
 Monitor relevant opportunities and deadlines within the Post-Busan Interim Group (PBIG)
process and support the IATI Secretariat to make timely submissions on this;
Output
 Post-Busan IATI outreach strategy agreed by IATI Secretariat;
 Positive engagement with a range of key targets amongst non-IATI members, leading to
political commitment to publish data to the IATI standard.
Costs
Q3 FY2012/13
DIPR staff costs (10 days)
Sub-total
£3,500
£3,500
Q4 FY2012/13
DIPR staff costs (10 days)
Political outreach strategy
Sub-total
£3,500
£4,000
£7,500
Sub-total for Outreach strategy
£11,000
TOTAL FOR OUTREACH AND COMMUNICATIONS WORK
£41,300
3) IATI Secretariat Support
We propose that the accountable grant continues to make provision for IATI secretariat support that
DIPR currently provides. This includes drafting and editing Secretariat and Steering Committee
papers.
Costs
Q3 FY2012/13
DIPR staff costs (10 days)
Sub-total
£3,500
£3,500
Q4 FY2012/13
DIPR staff costs (10 days)
Sub-total
£3,500
£3,500
TOTAL IATI SECRETARIAT SUPPORT
£7,000
TOTAL COST OF PROPOSAL
£310,050
Terms and conditions
We understand that DFID will require us to report quarterly on funds spent, and also to provide our
audited Annual Accounts. We propose that a quarterly report should be submitted to Alasdair
Wardhaugh, Aid Transparency Leader, in the approved format in January 2013, and April 2013.
Start date
We propose that the start date for this Accountable Grant is 1st October 2012 and that the end date
is 31st March 2013.
ANNEX A – DIPR staff and contractor costs breakdown
Staff Costs
TAG chair (Brian Hammond)
TAG secretariat manager
(Simon Parrish)
IATI delivery manager
(Kim Borrowdale)
Implementation support manager
(Mandy Burrows)
Technical support and data quality
(Contractors)
Standard compliance advisor
(Bill Anderson)
Accessibility advisor
(Tim Davies)
Admin support
(Matt Bartlett)
Aidinfo and IATI country pilot manager
(Victoria Room)
Country pilot officer
Isabel Bucknall
Outreach and IATI Secretariat support
(Carolyn Culey)
Communications Officer
Total Days
Day rate
Days
670
Total cost
37
24790
500
11
5500
500
52
26000
300
88
26400
250
150
37500
350
44
15400
400
12.5
5625
200
10
2000
350
5
1750
250
10
2500
350
300
40
20
477.5
14000
6000
£167,465