The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) requires all development partners to report their aid activities funded by Sida according to the IATI standard. The purpose of this is to increase transparency in order to improve accountability, build trust, guide decision and policy making and hinder corruption.
The purpose of this guideline is to provide information to Sida’s partner organisations around what and how they are expected to report.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global initiative to improve the transparency and accountability of aid funding in both international development and humanitarian activities. The IATI Standard allows any organisation involved in international development to publish information on funded activities, partners, location, results, transactions and relevant documents. Anyone and any machine can explore and use that information, including to help inform decisions and reduce duplication.
IATI is an international organisation funded by its members and administered by a Secretariat. Secretariat staff manage the day-to-day running of IATI and are accountable to the Members’ Assembly and the governing board, made up of representatives elected by IATI members. For more information, please see IATI Governance.
IATI data is published on IATI Registry and made available through a number of different online tools, for example d-portal and the Country Development Finance Data tool. The data is also made available in APIs for automated exports.
IATI’s database is used by journalists, scientists, governments, civil society organisations and the general public all over the world. You can read more about specific case studies here.
Sida extracts data from IATI registry and publishes all activities funded by Sida on Openaid.se. The information is also used internally at Sida for analysis and follow-up.
This guide takes you through the three steps to publishing data to IATI:
There are many tools and services available to help you publish IATI data. See this list for some examples. Sida recommends IATI’s own tool IATI Publisher, which is free to use.
On IATI’s webpage you can find guidance and support for publishers as well as comprehensive technical documentation of the IATI standard.
Technical questions can be directed to support@iatistandard.org and Sida-specific questions can be directed to statistics@sida.se.
It is the responsibility of each partner organisation to determine what information can and cannot be published. Sensitive activities need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to decide whether to exclude some or all of the data, in order to ensure safety while keeping the IATI data useful and meaningful. There are many ways of adapting data to remove sensitive details, including:
Personal information covered under GDPR, such as names of individuals, should never be published. You may wish to discuss exclusion of information with the 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 describe your organisation and information relating to the whole organisation such as budget and links to public documents. Here you can find an introduction to the organisation standard as well as detailed documentation on each element.
| 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 where you publish data about your activities. Here 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.
Ideally, all information relating to the same development activity should be published as a single IATI activity and cover the entire duration of the activity. This avoids duplication and makes it easier to use the data. For example, an ongoing activity can be updated with transactions form the current year while leaving transactions from the previous years in place. Information about the activity such as description and location can also be modified during the activity period as needed.
| 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 |
It is mandatory to include a reference to a valid activity identifier among Sida’s IATI activites. The purpose of this is to identify links between activities along the network of organisations and to publish your activities correctly on openaid.se.
Sida publishes IATI activities on 2 levels. The top-level activities (called “contribution”) are in the format “SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX”, where XXXXX is the 5 or 8-digit contribution ID. The second level activities (called “component” or “activity”) are in the format “SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX-YYYYYYYYYY” where YYYYYYYYY is the component ID.
In your IATI data you should reference the contribution (i.e. the top-level activity). The activity ID that you should use can be found in your contract or can be provided by your programme manager. You can also find the activity ID by navigating to the relevant contribution on openaid.se.
To reference one of Sida’s IATI-activities, use a transaction of the type “incoming fund” or “incoming commitment” and use the element provider-activity-id to reference one of Sida’s IATI-activities. For example:
<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>