Traceability - general guidance

Standard Management 2.03 Decimal Upgrade Proposals
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#1

This proposal is part of the 2.03 upgrade process, please comment by replying below.

Standard
Activity

**Schema Object** None

**Type of Change** Addition of guidance

**Issue** Publishers and users require clearer guidance on how funds can be traced down the delivery chain.

**Proposal** Add a section on traceability to the standard guidance on [Establishing Publishing Policies](http://iatistandard.org/202/guidance/how-to-publish/establish-publishing-policies/). This should include:

  • Incoming funds and commitments transactions should contain provider-activity-id where the funds are received from an IATI reporting institution.
  • Transaction types ‘Disbursement’ and ‘Expenditure’ should be used in accordance with the descriptions in the Transaction Type codelist. i.e. Disbursements are made to recipients who will be expected to report their activities to IATI. The recipients of expenditures fall outside of IATI traceability standards.
  • Incoming funds and commitments transactions should contain provider-org details where the funds are received from a non-IATI reporting institution.
  • Disbursement transactions should contain receiver-org details where the funds are to be received from a non-IATI reporting institution.
**Standards Day** Proposals were accepted. Plus:
  • While not specifically related to this proposal, question was raised about the possibility of adding incoming commitments.
  • It was pointed put that the definition of disbursement and expenditure can be better explained.
  • It was suggested that for better data use, provider org should provide full name and more elaborate description. It was also proposed that a common term is used for organisations that are legitimately unable to disclose this information.
**Links** http://bit.ly/2lCWRK9 Previous discussions - https://discuss.codeforiati.org/t/tech-paper-traceability/541/7
1 Like
#4

Notes from consultation calls w/c 3rd July

Outcome:
The proposal was reviewed by those on the call and there was general agreement for the need of further guidance on traceability. Specific suggestions made by the group were:

  • Under point 2 update ,“i.e. Disbursements are made to recipients who will be expected to report their activities to IATI. The recipients of expenditures fall outside of IATI traceability standards”, to align the proposal with the IATI 2.03 revised definitions of disbursement and expenditure.
  • Clarify in points 1 & 3 that commitments refer to ‘incoming commitments’ only.
  • Point 4, ‘received from’ needs to change to ‘received by’.
    The group asked for the updated guidance to include worked examples on traceability and signposts to different data visualisations that are already available.