Who runs IATI?

Meet the teams that make up IATI’s Governing Board and Secretariat. Both are accountable to IATI members.

Governing board

The Governing Board takes a leadership role in overseeing the implementation of IATI’s work. The board puts recommendations on key budget and strategic issues to the Members’ Assembly for final approval.

The Board is made up of seven members representing providers of development cooperation, partner countries and civil society, non-governmental and private sector organisations. The Board also includes one technical representative. The members of the Board appoint IATI’s Chair and Vice Chairs, who chair both the Governing Board and the Members’ Assembly.

Henry Asor Nkang

  • IATI Chair
  • Government of Nigeria, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning
Henry Asor Nkang oversees governance of the Development Assistance Database (DAD), which is the official Aid Information Management System of the Government of Nigeria. He is also a policy specialist with over 16 years experience of working on development cooperation, transparency initiatives, business analytics, research, and process improvement in private and public sectors in United Kingdom and Nigeria.
  • IATI constituency: Partner Country

Innocent Mugabe

  • Government of Rwanda, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, External Finance Directorate
Innocent manages the Development Assistance Database for Rwanda and coordinates information about development cooperation flows. He manages devpartners.gov.rw; an online repository of communications between the Government of Rwanda and their development partners. He also serves as the Secretary to the Government of Rwanda/Development Partner coordination forums.
  • IATI constituency: Partner Country

Thea Schepers

  • IATI Vice-Chair
  • Senior Advisor IATI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Thea Schepers is part of the Open Data Team in the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She provides internal and external advice on implementing the IATI Standard and using IATI data. As part of her role, Thea delivers training on how to publish IATI data to the Ministry’s implementing partners. Before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she implemented IATI publishing in a development organisation as part of her role as database manager.
  • IATI constituency: Provider of development cooperation

Joseph Barnes

  • Chief Programme Monitoring, Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring
  • United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
Joseph Barnes oversees governance of UNICEF's programme monitoring and transparency portfolio, which facilitates the development and use of standards, tools and systems for managing for results, and the use of information on results to enable adaptive programming. Joseph also leads UNICEF’s investment in strengthening the capacity of the monitoring function.
  • IATI constituency: Provider of development cooperation

Charlie Martial Ngounou

  • Executive President, AfroLeadership
Charlie is a champion for data rights, digital rights and human rights online. He is the founder and president of AfroLeadership, a pan-african civil society organisation promoting open data, open governance, data economy and data justice to improve transparency, accountability and citizen participation in African countries. Charlie is also a founding member and is on the Board of Directors for MyData Global and aNewGovernance. He is an advisory board member and Africa Representative of PLACE, a global organisation aiming to deliver ultra-high resolution open maps of the urban world.
  • IATI constituency: Civil society organisation and other

Winnie Kamau

  • President, Association of Freelance Journalists
Winnie Kamau is data journalist and is the President of the Association of Freelance Journalists in Kenya. Winnie is an Editor of the online publication, TalkAfrica and is a Convener for the network, Africa Open Data Collaboratives.
  • IATI constituency: Civil society organisation and other

Pelle Aardema

  • Consultant, Open Works
Pelle has been involved with IATI since 2010. As a private consultant Pelle has supported numerous organisations to improve their internal information management and to publish and use IATI open data. Since 2015 he has also worked part time with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs on their IATI / open data agenda.
  • IATI constituency: Technical Seat

Governing Board focal points

Governing Board representatives act as focal points for specific objectives of IATI’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025. Board focal points serve as an important liaison between IATI’s Board and Secretariat, ensuring progress is made towards delivering all aspects of the Strategic Plan.

  • Objective 1: Drive a significant improvement in the quality of data published to IATI Innocent Mugabe, Thea Schepers

  • Objective 2: Promote the systematic use of IATI data by development and humanitarian actors Winnie Kamau, Innocent Mugabe, Charlie Martial Ngounou

  • Objective 3: Strengthen the IATI Standard by consolidating the technical core and maintaining its infrastructure Pelle Aardema, Charlie Martial Ngounou

  • Cross-cutting action areas to achieve objectives: Outreach, Communications, Community Winnie Kamau, Thea Schepers

  • Institutional arrangements, budget, administration, policy Pelle Aardema, Joseph Barnes, Henry Asor Nkang

Secretariat

The secretariat includes staff responsible for the day-to-day running of IATI, and implements decisions agreed by the members’ assembly and governing board.

Annelise Parr

  • IATI Coordinator
  • United Nations Development Programme
Annelise undertakes the project management and day-to-day coordination of the secretariat. She provides advice and support to IATI governing bodies, and manages new memberships, engagement in global events and outreach with partner countries (developing country governments).

Wendy Thomas

Development Initiatives Primary Logo
  • IATI Technical Lead
  • Development Initiatives
Wendy is the Technical Lead for IATI, responsible for oversight of the IATI Standard and managing the work of the IATI Technical Team.

Anna Whitson

  • Outreach and Partnerships Specialist – Effective Development Cooperation
  • United Nations Development Programme
Anna focuses on strengthening engagement with IATI members and other open data stakeholders, especially in partner countries. She is the secretariat focal point for IATI’s Data Use Task Force and supports management of the IATI Data Use Fund.

Argjira Belegu-Shuku

UNOPS Logo
  • Logistics, Administrative and Financial Specialist
  • United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Argjira leads on the financial and logistical needs of the secretariat. Argjira manages collection of members’ voluntary and membership contributions and disbursement to the secretariat.

Cillian O’Cathail

UNOPS Logo
  • Communications Manager
  • United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Cillian provides operational support to fulfill UNOPS’ responsibilities within the secretariat. He works on logistical coordination for the annual IATI TAG and members' assembly meetings.

Maria Molsa

UNOPS Logo
  • SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPARENCY OFFICER
  • United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Maria provides operational support to fulfill UNOPS’ responsibilities within the IATI Secretariat.

Rohini Simbodyal

  • IATI Communications Specialist
  • United Nations Development Programme
Rohini advises on and implements strategic communications across the initiative. As part of her role, Rohini works on IATI’s website, e-communications, media relations and social media channels, and supports outreach and engagement work.

Sander Hees

  • Community Facilitator
  • United Nations Development Programme
Sander is the IATI Community Facilitator. He primarily focuses on strengthening the IATI community, assisting in the launch of a new digital platform and working on the establishment of IATI’s new Communities of Practice.