Aid in Motion: What We Learned About Making Organisations Visible

In September 2025, IATI convened the second set of State of the Data Dialogues - 'Aid in Motion’. The sessions brought together partners from across the development and humanitarian community to reflect on new analysis mapping approximately 17,000 organisations referenced in IATI data.

Across two webinars, the IATI Secretariat presented their analysis and hosted a discussion on what this data means for strengthening transparency across delivery chains.

Speaking during the Dialogues, Yemesrach Workie, Executive Director of IATI, emphasised the importance of organisational visibility to the future of aid transparency:

“Visibility of organisations is central to IATI’s value proposition. When we can clearly identify and reference every actor, we unlock new levels of accountability, efficiency, and impact.”

Dialogue 1 - Presentation and Demo: Mapping 17,000 organisations

The IATI Secretariat opened the Aid in Motion dialogues by setting out the core challenge. While organisations are central to development and humanitarian action, they are often inconsistently represented in data. The same organisation can appear under different names, acronyms, or languages — or sometimes not be referenced at all. This creates barriers to transparency and accountability across delivery chains.

The Secretariat noted that “people often ask for a list” of organisations working in the development and humanitarian system. They showed how IATI is beginning to address the challenge by:

• Highlighting that the IATI Standard requires publishers to name their organisation using a unique reference (an org-ID), so it can be consistently recognised.
• Encouraging publishers also to include unique references for other organisations they work with.
• Demonstrating, through new interactive analysis, how IATI data can map who is funding, managing, or implementing activities.

Through a live demo of their Aid in Motion analysis, the IATI Secretariat showed how users can explore organisational networks by country, sector, or role — making thousands of organisations more visible across delivery chains and revealing patterns that were previously hidden.

Watch Presentation.

Dialogue 2 - Learning from 360Giving: Another Data Initiative in Practice

The second webinar featured a guest presentation from 360Giving, an initiative that supports data transparency of UK grants. 360Giving shared lessons from ten years of experience making UK grantmaking data open and usable. Their insights on the importance of identifiers, data quality, and common infrastructure offered a practical perspective on how open data standards can transform visibility and accountability in funding flows.

View 360 Giving’s presentation.

What's Next

The Aid in Motion dialogues highlighted both the opportunities and the work ahead. By improving the consistency of organisation references and expanding the use of standard identifiers, data publishers can ensure that thousands of organisations are no longer hidden within delivery chains.

The IATI Secretariat invites you to explore the interactive analysis, share your feedback, and continue this conversation within the IATI community on IATI Connect: iaticonnect.org/topic/iati-state-data.

Looking ahead, the next State of the Data Dialogues will focus on Timely data, which is critical for informed decision-making: governments need it to plan budgets, humanitarian actors require it to respond to crises, and citizens need it to hold institutions accountable.

Stay connected as IATI continues this series. Together, we can strengthen accountability, enhance collaboration, and ensure that aid reaches those who need it most.