bond.org.uk
Transparency: Beyond IATI
Michael O’Donnell, Head of Learning & Effectiveness
4th April 2014, IELG Meeting
bond.org.uk
A Reminder: Why Be Transparent?
• Right to Information perspective: transparency re public funding
• Transparency as a first step to improving accountability; exposure to scrutiny and feedback
• By donors and supporters• By those your work is intended to help
• Improving coordination across aid providers: who is providing what, where and when? Requires use of a common standard
• Who knows what uses other people may find for your data? Research, journalism…
• Active vs Passive transparency; donor publishing
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Audiences for Transparency
• Beneficiaries: varied methods, linked to work on “beneficiary feedback”
• Individual supporters: website as a key method; generate funds and retain public trust
• Donors: IATI as the common standard• DFID contractual requirement (UK Aid Transparency
Guarantee); others to follow?• Southern Governments: Aid Information
Management Systems and IATI to coordinate aid and budget data (and monitor NGOs?)
• Media
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IATI Data: this doesn’t look useful…
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IATI Data: …but this is
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IATI data: …and so is this
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IATI and UK NGOs – the story to date
• UK NGOs constitute 132 out of 229 publishers globally to IATI as of 28/2/14
• Of whom
• i.e. publishing to IATI is primarily a compliance exercise at present (only 10% of NGOs are publishing anything on non-DFID funding)
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DFID Minimum Fields
> DFID Minimum Fields
DFID Funding Only
71 47
DFID + Other Funding
13 1
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Why not publish more?
• Too much hassle to publish to IATI (staff time, systems), and not funded to do so
• Can’t see evidence of the value of publishing/ of data being used – yet!
• Don’t use the data themselves
• But is culture and behaviour also a problem? Is there too much fear about being open? Or do we not think about it enough?
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bond.org.uk
Bond’s Transparency Assessment
• New survey to be launched in April
• Based on consultations with Bond Transparency Working Group
• Aims to review NGOs’ websites for transparency and make recommendations for improvements
• Indicators are based on a set of information that NGOs would be expected to make available
• Does not assume that supporters, beneficiaries and others would always seek out this information, but it is reassuring to know it is there
• Low cost to achieve high scores
• Indicators reflect Bond Charter, INGO Accountability Charter…
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What is Covered?
• Open Information Policy• Organisational Information (mission and strategy)• Governance • Financial information• Activities• Results
• 3 levels for each area, plus a “star” for making information comparable (e.g. via IATI, use of Evidence Principles)
• Considers volume published, frequency, timeliness and accessibility
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How the Assessment Will Work
• Organisations self-nominate to be assessed• Bond will review websites against the indicators• NGO can check score before being finalised• Tailor-made report and recommendations
showing your score and the range/ average for all those assessed
• Overall report on the exercise showing anonymised data – ranges and averages (no “naming and shaming”)
• Based on recommendations from the Transparency Working Group
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bond.org.uk
What we hope will happen…
• Individual organisations given ideas for simple ways to increase transparency
• Organisations think of their websites as a vehicle for transparency
• Remove some of the fear of publishing• Inject some healthy competition around
transparency!• Becomes an annual survey• Enables us to communicate the transparency of
the sector publicly• Follow-up services, e.g. support on Open Info
Policies, consultants for website improvement…
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bond.org.uk
Let us know…
If you would like to participate in the assessment, email:
• We aim to start the survey in late April/ early May
• Report in June
• Stay in touch by signing up to the Transparency Working Group at my.bond.org.uk
• (Next meeting: April 30th)
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