IATI's role in tracking development funding to Indigenous Peoples

IATI participated in a workshop in Paris (6-7 November 2023) on improving the tracking of development funds to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). Organised by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities and Charapa, the workshop focused on overcoming data gaps on the pledging and implementation of funds to IPLCs, and the results achieved.

IATI was invited to present its role on capturing data on international development and humanitarian funding. Many representatives from IPLCs, donors and international NGOs learned about IATI for the first time and the workshop was a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about what data was available. To date, over 1600 organisations have published IATI data, many of whom fund IPLCs. Participants learned that this data is publicly available online via IATI portals including d-portal and CDFD.

To date, over 1600 organisations have published IATI data, many of whom fund Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

Need for better data

The workshop was held to agree ways to strengthen the data available on funding to IPLCs, who were recognised as “indispensable partners in addressing climate change and conserving biodiversity”. The Global Alliance of Territorial Communities stressed that more monitoring is needed to ensure funding pledged by donors was reaching IPLCs. A study by the Rainforest Foundation Norway found that only a small fraction of funding for IPLC tenure and forest management was likely to reach the IPLCs themselves, as most of the funding flows through large intermediaries or is delivered as part of larger programs. Furthermore, the report found that donors were giving less than one percent of official development assistance (ODA) for climate change mitigation and adaptation to IPLCs.

The workshop discussed the difficulty of tracking funding to IPLCs using current data sources and tools, and considered how a common framework for collecting and publishing data would help. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) has recommended that the OECD-DAC create a new policy marker on funding allocated for Indigenous Peoples. The workshop discussed this and other mechanisms for marking financing for IPLCs in data that is published through the OECD Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC), IATI and other public sources. Improving the detail and coverage of the data, and better coordination of data publication practices were noted as key challenges.

IATI’s role in meeting data gaps

IATI was recognised as being a key resource in meeting the need for better data with several participating organisations saying they had already used IATI data to track funding to IPLCs. These users noted that IATI is a unique resource given its scope and the level of detail available, allowing the use of advanced analytical techniques.

The workshop also acknowledged the challenges with IATI data, including the complexity of publication for smaller organisations and the differences in coverage and data quality between publishers that make comparison difficult.

Next steps

The IATI Secretariat offered its continued support to working with representatives from IPLCs and international bodies to improve access to data on development funding, through existing tools and resources. As an immediate next step the Secretariat will have follow-up conversations with workshop participants who had used IATI data to gain specific feedback on data quality, the potential for AI analysis of IATI data, and how well the IATI Datastore enables analysis.

Support

For more information on how to use IATI data visit the Data Use Query Corner on IATI’s Community Plaform, Connect. Alternatively, reach out directly to the IATI Secretariat at [email protected] for additional support in accessing, understanding or analysing IATI data.