What is IATI?

IATI makes information about aid spending and results easier to access, understand, and use.

What is IATI?

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) supports the publication of development and humanitarian data using the IATI Standard. This is a set of rules and guidance to ensure that information is easy to access and published by organisations in a standardised way. The IATI Standard aims to deliver the information required to improve the coordination, accountability, and effectiveness of development and humanitarian aid.

IATI publishers include:

  • Donor governments
  • Development finance institutions
  • UN agencies
  • Foundations
  • Private sector organisations
  • Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

The IATI Standard

The IATI Standard allows organisations to provide detailed information for decision-making and accountability. This includes:

Organisation-level:

  • Forward looking budgets
  • Total spend
  • Documents such as country action plans and annual reports.

Activity-level:

“Activity” is the IATI term for a piece of development or humanitarian work (e.g. a project).

  • Activity title and description
  • Recipient country or region
  • Incoming funds, disbursements, and expenditures
  • Budgets and commitments
  • Location
  • Sector
  • Results data on the impact or outcome of the activity.

Data published according to the IATI Standard is in the XML data format. This means that the data can be easily compared and combined with other data published in the same way.

This data can be exported in formats such as spreadsheets, and used to create visualisations such as charts, graphs, and maps. See Tools to access IATI data for more information.