Updated COVID-19 guidance for IATI publishers

IATI’s guidance has been updated on how to publish data on COVID-19 using the IATI Standard. A number of key additions have been made following a consultation with IATI’s diverse community from across the international development and humanitarian sector.

Read Guidance: Publishing data on COVID-19 using the IATI Standard

What has changed?

The IATI Technical Team has listened to calls for publishers to add COVID-19 data in additional fields of the IATI Standard. In addition to the existing guidance, publishers are now also advised to (see highlighted in yellow in updated guidance):

• Descriptions - add “COVID-19” in the descriptions of their activities and/or transactions. This addition has been made as some organisations said they were unable to follow the original guidance of using COVID-19 in the title of their activities.

• Tag - add “COVID-19” in the ‘tag’ element of the Standard (see guidance for detailed instructions). This provides the option for organisations who wanted to distinguish their development activities from humanitarian activities.

Does this mean I need to correct the data I’ve already published?

No. Your data is correct and can still be accessed by data users. These changes simply provide alternative options for organisations who were unable to follow the original guidance. However, your organisation is not prevented from adding COVID-19 to the descriptions and/or TAG element if it wants to further describe/classify its activities.

Where will my data be shown?

IATI has recently updated the search platform d-portal and users can simply click the ‘COVID-19 button’ to find data already published according to IATI’s original guidance, Read more information about d-portal’s recent updates.

For data users more familiar with the IATI Standard, the IATI Datastore Query Builder or API can also be used to search for COVID-19 data. The IATI Secretariat will be releasing guidance on how to access and use COVID-19 data shortly.

Get support

If you have any specific questions on publishing activities related to COVID-19, please do get in touch by emailing the IATI Helpdesk ([email protected]). You are also encouraged to join IATI’s Webinar: IATI Guidance on publishing and using data on COVID-19, 27 April 3:30pm (UK time). International development and humanitarian actors not already registered to publish IATI data are encouraged to contact IATI’s Technical Team for support on getting set up to publish data on COVID-19 to IATI.