What is IATI?
IATI stands for the International Aid Transparency Initiative. It is an open standard, meaning a shared way of describing aid activities in a data file. Donors, governments and NGOs publish files that follow it, and anyone can read and compare them.
The aim is transparency: people can see who funds what, in which place, for which purpose and with what result. The standard is maintained by the IATI community, and it changes over time. Always check the current version before you build or send a file.
What information does an IATI file cover?
An activity record can include:
- A title and description of the activity.
- The organizations involved and their roles.
- Dates and status.
- Locations and sectors.
- Budgets, planned and actual spending, and transactions.
- Results and indicators, where the publisher chooses to include them.
Which parts you publish depends on your donors and your own policy. Publishing more is not always better. Quality matters more than volume.
Who needs to publish?
Some donors ask grant recipients to publish, or to give data in a form that the donor can include in its own file. Other organizations publish voluntarily. Check each funding agreement. Do not assume. If you are not sure, ask your donor contact.
How do you prepare?
- Find out what is required. List which donors ask for IATI data and what they need.
- Clean your records. Titles, dates, locations, sectors and budgets should be complete and consistent. Inconsistent names for the same activity are a common problem.
- Map your data. Match your fields to the parts of the standard. Note gaps.
- Decide what to disclose. Remove personal data and anything that creates risk for staff, partners or participants. Record who approved the decisions.
- Assign owners. Name who updates records and who approves publication.
- Test with a draft. Produce a file, read it and fix errors before publishing.
- Set a rhythm. Plan regular updates so the published data stays current.
Many teams find that good project records are the main work. The file itself is the last step. A tidy results framework and consistent indicators make the results section much easier.
What should you check before you publish?
- Is every activity identified clearly, with correct dates and status?
- Do budgets and spending match your finance records?
- Are locations accurate and safe to share?
- Is any personal or sensitive data left in free-text fields?
- Do descriptions make sense to a reader outside your organization?
- Did a second person review the file?
Treat a file that loads without errors as only a first step. A technically valid file can still hold wrong or unsafe information.
What are common mistakes?
- Publishing once and never updating.
- Leaving out spending data because finance and program records disagree.
- Using internal codes or acronyms in descriptions.
- Sharing precise locations where that could harm people.
- Assuming a software export proves compliance with a donor’s rules.
Read the IATI guide for more on how to approach this.
What does a first-time publisher do in the first month?
A simple plan keeps the work small:
- Week one. Pick one or two active projects as a pilot, not the whole portfolio.
- Week two. Gather the records for those projects: titles, dates, partners, budgets, locations and sectors. Fix gaps and inconsistent names.
- Week three. Agree the disclosure rules with your director and, where needed, your donor. Write down what stays private.
- Week four. Produce a draft file, have a second person read it line by line, and note every correction.
After the pilot, extend the routine to other projects. Keeping a short written procedure helps new staff repeat it. Also record who approved each publication, because later questions about what was shared and why are easier to answer with a dated note.
Where EMPOBase fits
EMPOBase offers an IATI export as a Pro+ feature. Its availability and field coverage must be confirmed before you rely on it, and you should review the actual file and your disclosure decisions before publication. An export is not proof of IATI or donor compliance. Project, budget and indicator records in EMPOBase can feed your preparation, but you stay responsible for data quality and for what you choose to publish.