Notes from CSO group call on the draft agenda for the Steering Committee 2-3 December 2015
(please see previous post for draft papers and context)
General comments on the agenda:
Group would like to see the agenda include:
- IATI in the external context – reports back from Financing for Development meeting in Addis, SDGs meetings at UNGA and the recent Open Government Partnership meeting in Mexico. Discussion of the role/opportunity for IATI in these contexts and action plans going forward.
- Update on the workplan – what’s been achieved, what’s yet to be done and impact of any shortfall in funding.
- Update on communications and outreach activities and plans for the next 6 months (and perhaps clarifications of responsibilities.
Action: Sarah and Laia to make these recommendations to the IATI Secretariat as co-chairs of the CSO group. Individual CSO members to also make these recommendations back to the IATI Secretariat where they are in agreement.
Governance
The group were supportive of the move to make decision-making more efficient and effective, and proposed structure makes sense.
The methodology for representation on the main decision-making body (Board of Governors) would need to be developed and the group would encourage and welcome representation of both end users (represented by Southern CSOs and networks) and the technical community on this body.
This structure should also enable transparent decision-making on the technical data standard side, tasked to create a clear vision for development of the Standard with a business case and annual plan for development activities and inclusive of data users and partner country governments.
Currently members ‘pay’ for the right to sit on the Steering Committee. Any new governance model will need to take into account the representation of those that are unable to pay (for example, Southern CSOs and networks).
Action: Sarah to feed this back to the MAG discussions
**IATI Standard 2.02 upgrade and general comments on the upgrade process:
See above re transparent and effective decision-making on the technical side and previous discussions.
Donor implementation of the standard and requirements of grant-holders is not consistent across the donors currently. Donors need to be aligned in their thinking on this. For example, although the changes to the standard in 2.02 are ‘optional’ some donors are making them requirements, but not all donors require the same elements. For federated NGOs this can prove to be a barrier to using IATI as an information sharing tool and add to the reporting burden. The group discussed advocacy towards donors in this respect.
It was felt that the time and resources required to upgrade data every time was not taken into consideration, and there was a timelag between the upgrades going live and the ability of IATI-supported tools to deliver upgraded data, especially where new or tweaked elements where introduced.
Action: Interested CSO group members to convene on this point to consider a way forward.
