Section outline


    • What is this training about? 

      Welcome to the introductory training on IATI data reporting and publishing through AidStream (IATI publishing tool) focused mainly on the IATI Guidelines set by DANIDA for Danish CSOs (Civil Society Organisations).  This course is designed to provide newcomers within a general understanding of how to prepare, publish, and view data on IATI. This training can also serve as a reference tool that you can consult as needed. You can refer back to the course material and examples as you work on your own data reporting and publishing.

      We'll go through the guidelines step-by-step and provide examples to help you understand how to report and publish data that aligns with Danida's requirements. So, are you ready? Let's dive into the world of IATI and begin your learning journey!



    • Start your learning journey with this brief introduction:

      What is the International Aid Transparency Initiative? Watch this video and find out!

         



    • Setting the scene

      Why should we use the IATI Standard and Registry? Take the quiz below!

    • What is IATI?
      The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is primarily a framework designed to standardize the reporting of development and humanitarian aid. It serves as a methodology to ensure that organizations report their aid data in a consistent manner. This framework encompasses various tools and websites built around it, including the official IATI webpage (https://iatistandard.org/en/), which is recommended for reference. While it may appear complex at first, it's not necessary to understand every detail of the IATI Standard to start reporting.

      In essence, the IATI Standard is a set of guidelines that specify how aid data should be reported, with the aim of achieving consistency across different organizations. There is a wealth of material and information available for those interested in delving deeper into the IATI Standard.

      In more practical terms, IATI publishing consists of three main components, as illustrated in the graphic below.


    • The publishing process 

      In compliance with DANIDA requirements, all your future IATI reporting work will be conducted using the publishing tools. Currently, Aidstream is the most widely used publishing tool, and this learning page will provide detailed instructions on how to get started. An overview of the process for IATI reporting is as follows:

      1. Registration with IATI & Aidstream: The first step is to create a user account and register your organization with both IATI and Aidstream.

      2. Prepare Your Data: You will need to ensure that the data intended for publishing is thoroughly prepared. This is particularly crucial to meet DANIDA requirements, so it's essential to ensure that all details are in order.

      3. Enter Data into Aidstream: Once your data is ready, proceed to enter it into Aidstream.


    • INTRODUCTION TO DANIDA GUIDELINES

      The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has its own set of guidelines on how to report in IATI. These guidelines differ depending on the type of partnership your organisation has with Danida. You are not obliged to upload information in IATI if your organisation has a project-based partnership with Danida, and gets funding from thematic calls, CISU (Civilsamfundspuljen), or similar. However, if your organisation has a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with DANIDA, there are several rules you must follow. This is outlined below.




    • What are the different danida guidelines?


      Organisations with single contracts

      If your organisation has a project contract with Danida and receives grants from thematic calls, CISU, or similar, Danida encourages you to comply with the IATI Standard and:

       Acknowledge receipt of funds, and register disbursements with sector and country code.

      2022-2025 SPA organisations

      If your organisation is part of the 2022-2025 SPA there are three main rules that you must comply with the IATI standard:

            Acknowledge receipt of funds, and register disbursements with sector and country code

            Publish three case stories

            Publish two cross-cutting indicators



    • Danida requirements

      You have now been introduced to the general DANIDA guidelines. Now let us have a look at what the guidelines require by thinking about what they are before focusing on how to meet them. 

    • Danida requirements - The iati standard

      DANIDA clearly states that IATI compliance means uploading the receipt of funds (going in and out), attaching related case study PDFs, and reporting on the two cross-cutting indicators. Meeting each of those requirements, however, must be in a format IATI itself considers acceptable. Those criteria come in the form of the IATI Standard. All uploads into IATI -- whether creating an activity, uploading transactions, or reporting results -- must follow  these criteria. The Standard is exhaustive, so it's important to recognize what is essential, what is "nice-to-have", and what does not need to be uploaded. Unfortunately, this may vary from organization to organization. Look through this section to learn more about the different components of the IATI Standard.



    • This section covers the most common terms used in the training.

    • You have now been introduced to a brief overview of IATI, the Danida guidelines and a glossary of terms. Click to the next section to learn how to prepare, publish and view data.


    • Prepare

      Before publishing an activity in line with the IATI data standard, there are various considerations that you should discuss and plan for within your organisation.

      1

      Ensure that there is endorsement at Senior Management level to maintain the commitment to aid transparency at an organisation wide level

      Engage with the relevant colleagues where different IATI data points are managed within your organisation (Project, Finance and Results) and agree on role responsibilities and timeline consideration

      3

      If you are publishing as part of a consortia, initiate a kickoff meeting to agree on data points and reporting considerations.

       


      There are different data point considerations for publishing to IATI data which are displayed below: 

    • Before publishing to IATI via AidStream, there are 2 key steps which you must complete: 

      • Create a publisher account on the IATI registry, there is a step by step process available on the IATI website. 
      • Create an account on Aid Stream, you will be unable to create an account on AidStream if you do not have an IATI registry reference. 


    • publish 

      There are several publishing tools available out there. For organisations beginning their IATI publishing journey, AidStream is the most common tool that can be used to publish data to IATI.
      Aid Stream is a free to use platform for organisations that need to publish up to 20 activities. For organisations with more than 20 activities, reach out to the IATI support desk for bespoke support at: support@iatistandard.org

      Before you can register and start using AidStream for inputting and publishing your IATI data (section C), you need to Register your organisation in IATi Registry (section A + B).



      Section A

      If your organisation have yet not been registered - Please follow these steps.


      Section B.

      Is if your organisation is already registered and are ready for setting up and account on AidStream.


      Section C

      If you do have an account on AidStream and wish to publish data - go to here.



      section A

      Create a publisher account on IATI Registry and organisation identifier

      Organisations who publish data to IATI are referred to as 'Publishers'. Before publishing data, organisations need their own 'Publisher Account' on the IATI Registry (iatiregistry.org)


    • section B

      Start using AidStream

      When you already have a publisher account - you can create an account on AidStream.

    • Section C

      How to publish data on your AidStream account

      The series of videos below are designed to support organisations in setting up an activity and following the: project, finance and results level to simplify the different stages of publishing to IATI. 

      Project Level Information 

      The videos below for project level information provide a clear of instructions on, how to set up an activity, how to record location data, how to note down the participating organisations and the thematic sectors that it includes.  


    • Activity Checklist

    • Setting up an activity



    • Recipient country

    • Add a participating Organisation

    • Financial Level Data 

      The two videos below demonstrate how to upload financial level data, the first is on budget data and the second is on financial transactions. 


      Uploading Budget data 

    • Financial Transaction information



    • VIEW

      Where to find and view published data on IATI

      IATI data can be found on several online platforms and databases that aggregate and present the information in a user-friendly format. 

      Some of the most popular platforms to find and view IATI data include:

    • These platforms allow you to search and view IATI data by various criteria, such as the country or region, the sector, the organization, or the funding source.
      However in this training we would like to introduce you to IATI d-portal (content pending)




    • More about how to use the data: 

      There are numerous tools and resources to help you use the data. These range from simple tools anyone can use to see the information, through to technical resources for developers who want to integrate data into other systems or build new tools.

      Click here to read more about HOW:
      https://iatistandard.org/en/using-data/

    • This section explains why it is important to understand how some data can be more sensitive than other kinds of data.


    • Sensitive information and data exclusion policy


      Possibly, your organisation is implementing activities that deal with sensitive topics or information. For instance, activities that can be considered unacceptable or conflicting with local values by states or societies (e.g. in the areas of human rights, gender, or good governance, or because you are dealing with commercial information). In such a case, you may not want to publish all details of your activities to

       both protect those who are doing the work as well as the intervention itself. Similarly, if you are working in sensitive geographic areas, you may not wish to publish details of your work and/or the location where it takes place. In such a case you must make a decision on what can be published and what cannot. Reasons to exclude data depend on each organisation but can vary from security concerns to the need to protect commercial information. 



    • THANK YOU FOR TAKING THIS TRAINING! 

      We hope you found it useful. Feel free to leave feedback or comments. 

      Click on the below 'Feedback' to complete the survey. The feedback is anonymous, but you are given the option to provide your e-mail address if you would like to be contacted to elaborate on your feedback.