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The Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC) has published its 2024 Financing Flows and Food Crises Report, its fifth annual report providing detailed analysis of how funding is delivered to countries and territories affected by acute food insecurity and malnutrition. The report highlights the critical role IATI data plays in offering up-to-date information that can transform how decision makers understand and respond to crises.
IATI’s decentralised publishing model enables organisations to independently update and maintain their data as it becomes available. The report used this timely data to complement the yearly updates from data sourced from the OECD’s Creditor Reporting System (CRS) to track development funding flows. As CRS data was only available up to 2022 at the time of analysis, IATI data from 72 OECD donor agencies was incorporated to provide a more up-to-date picture of the funding landscape.
“By complementing CRS’s audited dataset with IATI’s latest available information, we’ve built a more complete picture – filling critical gaps and improving our ability to provide updated and robust information that supports decision-making.” – Giacomo Laracca, Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer for Food Crises, FAO
The timeliness of IATI data is particularly important in food crises contexts, where conditions can change rapidly and updated information is needed to support decision-making. The combined CRS and IATI data helped to understand current trends based on past spending, while accounting for differences between sectors.
Giacomo Laracca, Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer for Food Crises at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) explains how combining different data sources has helped strengthen the analysis in the report. “When we first started publishing these reports we relied on CRS data, but our partners highlighted the need for more up to date insights. By complementing CRS’s audited dataset with IATI’s latest available information, we’ve built a more complete picture – filling critical gaps and improving our ability to provide updated and robust information that supports decision-making.”
The GNFAC report makes clear that effective responses to food crises rely not just on better data, but on better use of data. To turn insights into action, decision makers must use data to shape priorities, coordinate responses and ultimately ensure that resources reach the people who need them most.
The report spotlights the Global Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard (GAFS Dashboard) as a key example of this approach. The publicly available dashboard provides a worldwide overview of food and nutrition security by consolidating data from a wide variety of global, national and sub-national sources. IATI provides data on over 5,000 activities and 41,000 transactions that specifically target food and nutrition security.
GAFS collaborates with other agencies to support countries as they develop and operationalise Preparedness Plans for Food and Nutrition Security – national operational plans define what constitutes a major food and nutrition security crisis, and details step-by-step protocols, roles and timelines for mobilising additional funding. When a Preparedness Plan is triggered, responding organisations can use specialised IATI reporting codes to share data, making it easier to track where aid is going and where gaps remain. If the data shows that a particular district is being overlooked despite rising food security, funds and supplies can be quickly redirected.
The GAFS approach shows that with real-time data, decision-makers can act faster and target resources more effectively. The challenge now is making sure this data is used to its full potential by decision makers responding in crisis situations.