If your organisation receives funding from Sida, you are required to publish information about your aid activities online using the IATI standard. This guideline will walk you through what that means, what to publish, how to do it, and where to get help.
The purpose of doing this is to increase transparency. When information about aid activities is openly available, it strengthens accountability, supports better decision-making, and helps build trust and hinder corruption.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global initiative that promotes transparency by making information about development and humanitarian funding open and accessible.
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.
The IATI secretariat are responsible for managing and maintaining the IATI data standard and a number of different tools for exploring IATI data. For more information about how the IATI organisation is set up and governed, please see IATI Governance.
IATI is a community-driven initiative and you are highly encouraged to engage and contribute, regardless of your technical skill level! A good first step is to create an account on IATI’s community platform IATI connect and to sign up to the IATI newsletter (at the bottom of this page.
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. | No |
| 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 | No |
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. Note: 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 |
| 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. | No |
| 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. | No |
| 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. | No |
| Flow type | Whether the activity is funded by Official Development Assistance (ODA), Other Official Flows (OOF), etc. | No |
| Finance type | Financing mechanism – grant/loan/capital/export credit etc. | No |
| Aid type | Type of assistance provided e.g. project-type interventions, core-contributions to multilateral institutions, core support to NGOs. | No |
| Tied status | Whether there are restrictions on the aid. | No |
| Financial | ||
| Budget | Budget for the activity. | Yes |
| Planned disbursement | Planned payment schedule for future disbursements. | No |
| Transactions |
Incoming funds Note: Use transaction type “1 - Incoming funds” for received funds, or transaction type “11 - Incoming commitment” for future agreed incoming funds. If the activity is funded by Sida, use the field “Provider activity ID” to indicate one of Sida’s IATI activities. |
Yes |
|
Outgoing funds Note: Use transaction type “3 - Disbursement” for funds paid to other organisations, or transaction type “2 - Outgoing commitment” for future agreed payments. |
Yes | |
|
Administrative costs and overheads Note: Use transaction type “4 - Expenditure” for funds spent on goods or services for the activity. |
Yes | |
| Documents | ||
| Document link | Documents or websites relating to the activity, including project proposal, budget documents, reports, pictures, project updates etc. | No |
| Results | ||
| Result | Information on results and indicators of the activity. | No |
You must include a reference to one of Sida’s IATI activities in your IATI data. This is required so that data users can understand the funding flow and in order to show your activity correctly on openaid.se.
To link your activity to Sida’s IATI activity:
Sida’s IATI activity ID’s have the format SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX, where XXXXX is a 5 or 8 digit contribution ID. You can find the contribution ID in your agreement document or by searching for the relevant contribution on openaid.se. If you are unsure, you can ask your programme manager at Sida.
Sida publishes its IATI activities at two levels:
Contribution (top level)
ID format: SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX
The last part (XXXXX) is the contribution ID (5 or 8 digits).
Activity (second level)
ID format: SE-0-SE-6-XXXXX-YYYYYYYYYY
The last part (YYYYYYYYYY) is the activity ID (10 digits).
When you link your activity to Sida it is recommended to refer to the contribution (top-level), but either level can be used.
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" ref="SE-6">
<narrative>Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency</narrative>
</provider-org>
</transaction>
Do the requirements apply to all organisations that
receive funding from Sida?
The requirements apply 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 the whole or 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 organisation identifier and how do I
create one?
Read about how to create your IATI organisation 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.
We already have publishing requirements from other donors
(e.g the Netherlands, UK, Denmark or Belgium). Do we already live up to
Sida’s requirements?
Yes, if you are already publishing your activities according to another
donor’s requirements (and have added references to Sida’s IATI
activities) you probably also live up to Sida’s requirements. It is our
intention to harmonize our technical requirements with others
donors.
We are not financed by Sida directly, but subcontracted
and financed by one of Sida’s partner organisations. They have asked us
to publish to IATI. How do we link our activities
correctly?
If you are financed by one of Sida’s partner organisations you should
link your IATI activities to their activities. You can do this by
following the instructions in this section, but instead
of referring to one of Sida’s IATI activity ID’s, refer to the activity
that your financing organisation has published. Read more about how to
link activities across the delivery chain in IATI here.
Is it possible to report on behalf of another
organisation?
It is recommended that each organisation publishes information about
their own activities. This ensures that the organisation that is most
familiar with the activity and which is responsible for implementing it
have control of what information is public and shared online. If you
want to use IATI publisher to publish information on behalf of another
organisation, the best way is to create a separate account for that
organisation.
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.