Thanks for raising @rolfkleef and I thought it would be useful if I clarified the processes that the IATI Technical Team follow to allocate an XI-IATI prefix.
Generally, we are initially approached by new publishers who are seeking our advice as to what IATI organisation identifier they should use rather than for use of the XI-IATI prefix directly but the actions we take are the same. In either case, we do always initiate a dialogue with the publisher to try to determine if they are actually already registered with a recognised government or other suitable registration authority. If they are and we do not have the identified registration agency listed on the Organisation Registration Agency codelist then we will first add the registration agency so that the publisher can use their pre-existing code. As a result, we do only authorise the use of the XI-IATI code when all investigations have been exhausted and no valid or appropriate existing registration agency can be found. Also as @bill_anderson had mentioned we do have to be guided by the publisher as to what is appropriate for their organisation to use. However, I do agree that we should amend the definition to state that the prefix will only be allocated in ‘exceptional’ circumstances.
Also with regard to adding more registration agencies this is certainly something that we would want to do and we have for a long time had a work package on our books to do just that. However, it has unfortunately never as yet quite reached the required priority for us to schedule it as part of our active work plans although I would hope that as we are planning to increase the capacity of the IATI Technical Team soon this might finally be something that we can undertake?
