Data standards and interoperability

  • Using near real-time data on aid flows: Lessons learnt

    • June 2021

    • Lessons learnt from DI’s experience using near real-time data to examine donor response to the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting an urgent need for timely, disaggregated data..

  • Cuts to the UK 2020 aid budget: What IATI data tells us

    • February 2021

    • Co-authored with Dean Breed and Dan Coppard

    • Comparison of data published by the UK's FCDO and DFID in 2019 and 2020, showing where aid budget cuts fell among recipients, countries and sectors

  • The challenges of data on the financing response to Covid-19

    • May 2020

    • Examines the challenges of using financing data sources in matching resources to needs in the global Covid-19 response

  • The frontiers of data interoperability for sustainable development

    • November 2017

    • Co-authored with Tom Orrell and Liz Steele

    • In simple terms, interoperability is the ability to join up data from different sources in a standardised and contextualised way. However, it is about more than just the form and structure of data, it is also about solving problems in a joined-up way. Interoperability can help reduce the time, effort and expense exerted on data collection; eliminate the frustration and risks associated with handling inconsistent and incomplete data; and meet the need for internationally comparable, sustainable, disaggregated data to ensure that no one is left behind.

  • Aid, development, data, ownership: What has the data revolution got to do with IATI?

    • February 2017

    • The fact is IATI was established as a northern supply-side initiative and so, in practice, it remains. Despite IATI now being recognised by many as a good example of a multi-stakeholder initiative it is not an equitable partnership. Despite 28 developing country governments now being IATI members — quaintly and anachronistically still referred to as ‘partner countries’ — most fail to pay their nominal membership fee or cover their travel costs to meetings. And despite constituting a third of the 77-strong IATI Members Assembly their voice is rarely heard.

  • Defining Humanitarian Emergencies: a joined-up approach

    • August 2016

    • For humanitarian decision-making to be effectively harmonised, data from a variety of sources needs to be joined up. The way in which emergencies are defined and reported is an essential part of this.

  • The Open Data Charter: A breakthrough for joined-up data standards

    • January 2016

    • The international Open Data Charter launched in New York last month is the first globally inclusive and comprehensive manifesto of its type. It recognizes the north-south digital divide. It recognizes the challenges and needs facing developing countries. Of equal importance is the inclusion of the principle of “Comparability and Interoperability” – the first time that a charter like this has moved beyond transparency to properly consider the whole point of open data: usage. Most datasets are pretty meaningless on their own. It is only when they are combined and contextualized do they generally make sense. Joined-up data creates the information we need.