TAG 2018 report and takeaways

IATI’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) 2018 meeting was held in Kathmandu, Nepal (13-15 November) and was the first time IATI’s vibrant community of technical experts, open data advocates, data publishers and users met in the Asian region.

Draft Report: IATI TAG 2018

This year’s meeting focused on improving the systematic and routine use of IATI data to help achieve sustainable development outcomes. Read Draft Report: TAG 2018 to understand what progress was made at the meeting on the five themes of IATI’s Data Use Strategy 2017-19, as well as other key discussions and actions.

Do note that this report is a draft version and participants are invited to submit additional discussion and action points not already reflected, by emailing [email protected].

TAG takeaways from participants

Following the meeting, several participants reflected on what they gained from attending the TAG 2018 and positive steps they would take as a result. Take a look at their short videos below.

UN Environment Programme

Djaheezah Subratty from UN Environment plans to train their project managers on using IATI country data to help “scope and better design” their programmes and identify other partners operating in the field.

Ghana Institute of Journalism

After attending the TAG, the Ghana Institute of Journalism plans to create an IATI learning module for trainee journalists to help with their investigations into development and humanitarian issues.

DG European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO)

Marek Chroscicki attended from DG ECHO, the body responsible for the EU Commission's policies on aid and protection. He gained valuable knowledge on how the IATI Standard can be used to publish humanitarian data, which can then inform decisions by policymakers.

Publish What You Fund (PWYF)

CEO Gary Forster from PWYF said his first TAG meeting provided a good understanding of the challenges of using IATI data, and mentioned the Government of Rwanda’s call for improved geolocation data.

Young Innovations

Bibhusan Bista, CEO of Nepal-based software company Young Innovations was attending his fifth TAG meeting and was pleased the meeting was hosted in Kathmandu. He said the best aspect of the meeting was that the IATI community was focusing on improving the use of IATI data and was keen to ensure this work continued in a meaningful way.

World Vision International

Susan Nzisa Mbalu attended the TAG to learn best practices in improving the data she publishes on World Vision’s development and humanitarian projects. Susan found a session on addressing the challenges of publishing IATI data on hierarchies particularly helpful.

For all information and documents on the TAG 2018 meeting, including presentations and event images visit IATI’s TAG 2018 Kathmandu events page.