Sida requires all organisations that receive funding from Sida to make information about their aid activities available publicly online using the IATI standard.
The goal of IATI publishing is to make information about aid activities open and transparent. This helps to strengthen accountability, build trust, support better decision-making and policy development and hinder corruption.
This guideline explains what information Sida’s partner organisations need to publish and how they are expected to do it.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global initiative that promotes transparency by making information about development and humanitarian funding open and accessible. For information about how IATI is set up and governed, please see IATI Governance. The IATI secretariat are responsible for managing and maintaining the IATI data standard.
The IATI data standard is a common format that organisations use to publish information about their activities. This includes what the activity is about, who is funding and implementing it, where it takes place, how much money is involved, what results are achieved and links to related documents.
Information published using the IATI standard is open data and can be accessed and explored by anyone.
All IATI data is published on IATI’s website and can be accessed through several online platforms, such as d-portal and the Country Development Finance Data tool. The data is also available through APIs, which allow organisations and systems to automatically access and reuse the information.
IATI data is used worldwide by journalists, researchers, governments, civil society organisations, and the public. You can read more about specific case studies here.
Sida collects information from the IATI Registry and publishes details of all Sida-funded activities on openaid.se. Sida also uses this information internally for analysis, monitoring, and follow-up.
This guide takes you through the three steps to publishing data to IATI:
There are several tools and services that can help you prepare and publish IATI data. See this list for some examples. Sida recommends using IATI Publisher, which is IATI’s own tool and is free to use.
IATI’s website provides guidance for new and experienced publishers, help materials and detailed technical documentation of the IATI standard.
For technical questions about how to publish and use IATI’s tools, contact IATI support using this form.
For questions around Sida’s publishing requirements (i.e what you have to publish, when you have to publish it and whether what you have published meets Sida’s requirements), contact your programme manager at Sida or email statistics@sida.se.
Some activities may involve sensitive information. In such cases, parts of the data may need to be excluded or adapted to ensure safety while still keeping the information useful. Sometimes, the entire activity may need to be excluded.
Each partner organisation is responsible for deciding what information can and cannot be published.
There are many ways of adapting data to remove sensitive details, including:
Personal information covered under GDPR, such as names of individuals, must never be published.
You may wish to discuss exclusion of information with your programme manager at Sida.
| IATI Version | IATI standard version 2.03 or higher |
| Validity | The structure of your files should be compatible with the IATI schema. You can use IATI validator to check your files. |
| Frequency | Files should be updated at least annually. |
| Language | Preferably English. Narratives in other languages can be included if available. |
| Scope | IATI data should cover all activities funded by Sida. |
The IATI organisation file is used to share information about your organisation as a whole, such as your organisation’s budget and links to public documents. You can find an introduction to the organisation standard as well as detailed documentation on each element here.
| Data item | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Organisation identifier | Identification string for your organisation. | Yes |
| Name | Name of organisation | Yes |
| Reporting organisation | The organisation issuing the report. | Yes |
| Annual forward planning budget for organisation | Yearly forward looking information on the whole organisation or agency budget. | Yes |
| Organisation documents | Documents relating to the organisation, e.g. annual reports, strategic plans, other documents that provide relevant information on the organisation and its scope of work | Yes |
Activity files are used to share information about your projects or programmes. You can find an introduction to the activity standard, a summary table of all elements, an example XML file and detailed documentation on each element here.
All information about the same project should normally be published as one single IATI activity and should cover the full lifetime of the project. This makes the data easier to understand and avoids duplication.
For example, if a project runs for several years, you should update the same IATI activity each year by adding new financial transactions, while keeping data from previous years. You can also update other information, such as the project description or location, if it changes during the project.
| Data item | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | ||
| Reporting organisation | Unique identifier and name of organisation reporting the activity. | Yes |
| IATI activity identifier | Constructed with the Reporting Organisation unique identifier and the organisation’s chosen activity number. | Yes |
| Basic activity Information | ||
| Title | Title of the activity. | Yes |
| Description | A general description of the activity that expands the title of the activity. State the goals of the contribution and provide other essential information including information on and references to earlier contributions. Please keep in mind that description should be accessible to an uninitiated person. | Yes |
| Activity Status | Current status of the activity. | Yes |
| Activity date | Start and end dates of the activity. | Yes |
| Contact Info | Contact address and email for the reporting organisation. | Yes |
| Participating organisations | ||
| Funding organisation |
Name and unique identifier of the organisation funding the project. Note: If activity is funded by Sida, please use Sida’s identifier SE-6. If activity is funded by other donors, include those also. |
Yes |
| Accountable organisation | Name and unique identifier of the organisation responsible for oversight of the activity and its outcomes. | Yes |
| Extending organisation | Name and unique identifier of the organisation that manages the budget and direction of an activity on behalf of the funding organisation. | If applicable |
| Implementing organisation | Name and unique identifier of the organisation that physically carries out the activity or intervention. | Yes |
| Geographical information | ||
| Recipient country or region | The countries or regions that benefit from the activity. This information can be specified either on activity or transaction level. | Yes |
| Location | Location of the activity or its beneficiaries on a sub-national level. | If available |
| Classifications | ||
| Sector | The sectors that the activity benefits according to the 5 digit OECD DAC purpose code. This information can be specified either on activity or transaction level. | Yes |
| Policy marker | Indicators which track key policy issues. | If available |
| Flow type | Whether the activity is funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA), Other Official Flows (OOF), etc. | Yes |
| Finance type | Financing mechanism – grant/loan/capital/export credit etc. | Yes |
| Aid type | Type of assistance provided e.g. project-type interventions, core-contributions to multilateral institutions, core support to NGOs. | Yes |
| Tied status | Whether there are restrictions on the aid. | Yes |
| Financial | ||
| Budget | Budget for the activity. | Yes |
| Planned disbursement | Planned payment schedule for future disbursements. | If available |
| Transactions | Incoming commitments | If applicable |
|
Incoming funds Note: If activity is funded by Sida, use the provider-activity-id element to indicate one of Sida’s IATI activities. |
Yes | |
| Outgoing commitments | If applicable | |
| Outgoing disbursements | Yes | |
| Expenditure | If applicable | |
| Documents | ||
| Document link | Documents or websites relating to the activity, including project proposal, budget documents, reports, pictures, project updates etc. | If available |
| Results | ||
| Result | Information on results and indicators of the activity. You are free to use any format and indicators you see fit to publish results. | If available |
You must include a reference to one of Sida’s IATI activities in your IATI data. This is required so that data users can link your activity to its funding and in order to show your activity correctly on openaid.se.
Sida publishes its IATI activities at two levels:
Contribution (top level)
Format: SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX
The last part (XXXXX) is the contribution ID (5 or 8 digits).
Component or activity (second level)
Format: SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX-YYYYYYYYYY
The last part (YYYYYYYYYY) is the component ID.
When you link your activity to Sida, you should always reference the contribution (top-level activity) — not the component.
You can find the contribution ID in your contract or by searching for the relevant contribution on openaid.se. If you are unsure, you can ask your programme manager at Sida.
To link your activity to Sida’s IATI activity:
This is how the transaction with a reference could look in the XML file:
<transaction>
<transaction-type code="1" />
<transaction-date iso-date="2020-01-01" />
<value currency="EUR" value-date="2020-01-01">1000</value>
<provider-org provider-activity-id="SE-0-SE-6-14440" type="10" ref="SE-6">
<narrative>Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency</narrative>
</provider-org>
</transaction>
Does the requirements apply to all organisations that
receive funding from Sida?
The requirements applies to all organisations that have the requirement
included as a condition in their agreement with Sida, as well as their
subcontracted partners.
How do you define subcontracting
partners?
We define subcontracting as when Sida’s agreement partner signs an
agreement with another organisation to implement parts of the
contribution. Note that this does not include procured suppliers of
goods and services.
Do we report only the Sida funding or other funding
sources as well?
Sida requires only that you publish incoming funds from Sida, although
we encourage you to also make funding from other sources available.
What exactly is an activity?
As a publisher to IATI you have some flexibility in how you define what
an activity is. Normally, an activity consist of a multi-year project or
programme tied to a specific grant. An activity should not be a one time
activity such as a meeting or a workshop. If you are following up costs
internally on one specific level or business entity, it is advised to
define your activities on the same level. The purpose is to make the
information useful and easy to understand. You can find more guidance on
how to define an activity here.
Which “data licence” should we
select?
Sida recommends that you place your data in the public domain and make
it available for anyone to use by selecting “Other (public domain)”.
Read more about the meaning of data licence and the different options here.
What is an IATI identifier and how do I create
one?
Read about how to create your IATI identifier here.
Which currency should we use?
In IATI you can report financial information in any currency you prefer.
Our recommendation is to report all amounts in the currency in which the
actual transaction took place. On the openaid.se website all amounts are
converted to SEK and USD in order to make it user friendly.
Is it possible to upload pictures and other
media?
Yes, it is possible to add links to documents, images, videos and other
types of files in your IATI publication. Find more information here.
Are the guidelines available in other languages than
English?
For now, Sida’s guidelines are only available in English. Most of IATI’s
documentation and help pages are available in English, French and
Spanish.