International Aid Transparency Initiative

What is the International Aid Transparency Initiative?

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) aims to make public information on aid spending and activities more available and more accessible, worldwide. The initiative brings together donors, partner countries, civil society organisations and other users of aid information to agree common transparency standards for aid flows. DFID and a group of bilateral and multilateral donors launched the IATI in September 2008.

The full set of standards is being drawn up following detailed consultations with partner countries, civil society organisations and other users of aid information.

The standards require donors to:

publish core information on aid flows and activities, including full details of all aid to each country, details and costs of individual projects and their aims, and reliable information on future aid to help governments of developing countries improve their planning
use common formats and definitions, to make information easier to access and compare
make it easier for information to be exchanged electronically, between different systems and databases
develop a code of conduct which sets out how people should be able to access information, what they should do if information is not readily available, and how donors will be held to account if they do not comply with the standards.

Who is involved in IATI?

By August 2011, 20 donors had signed up to the IATI: the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, the European Commission, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Hewlett Foundation, the GAVI Alliance, and the UK. We are working hard to encourage all donors to sign up. The initiative is also being endorsed by a growing number of partner countries.

IATI is governed by a multi-stakeholder steering committee including representatives from bilateral, multilateral and non-traditional donors, experts in aid information and statistics, partner countries and civil society organisations.

The initiative has a multi-stakeholder secretariat comprising DFID, UNDP and the Aid Information team at the non-profit organisation Development Initiatives for Poverty Research (DIPR.)

DFID is also demonstrating commitment to the initiative’s aims by publishing our project data in line with the IATI standard, including much more detailed data about our project spending. See the list of links to DFID country data meeting the IATI standard in the 'data sets' section of this page.