PAPER 5: Technical Paper
- Format and Definitions of IATI Standard for remaining data
- IATI Licensing Standard
Meeting of IATI Signatories and Steering Committee Members
OECD, Paris, 9 February 2011
A Format and Definitions of IATI Standardfor remaining data
(Changes to the version used in the consultation shown in track changes)
Introduction
The detailed codes lists to be used are available at the online forum ( The technical formats for publishing are unchanged from those included in each of the consultation papers; some definitions have been updated in the light of the comments received. Once approved, the formats will be added to the repository of the official standard ( available in English, French and Spanish. The standard will be kept up-to-date in the light of implementation experience.
Documents
Section / Item / Definition / Data Format / XML / Occurs / Examples and NotesDocument Link / Information pertaining to a published document that is related to an organisation or an activity / country-budget / 0..*
url / The web address where the document can be downloaded. / u.r.l. / document-link/@url / 1..1 / <document-link url="
document format / The Internet Media Type ("MIME type") of the document linked to, as defined and maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. / File Format Code / document-link/@format / 1..1 / <document-link format="application/msword">
language / The ISO 639 code for the language of the document. Only required if different from the activity’s default language. / Language Code / document-link/@xml:lang / 0..1 / <document-link xml:lang="en">
category / The type of content contained within the document. If the document spans multiple content types this element should be repeated. / document-link/category / document-link/category / 1 0..*
category-code / The code for the content type / Document Category Code / document-link/category/@code / 1..1 / <category code="A04"/>
category-description / A description of the content type / Text / document-link/category/text() / 0..1 / <category code="A04">Conditions</category>
title / The full title of the document / Text / document-link/title/text() / 1..1 / <title>Project Conditions</title>
Results and Conditions
Section / Item / Definition / Data Format / XML / Occurs / Examples and NotesResults / Results / 0..1 / <results>
Result / a text description of the result the activity is aiming to achieve e.g. build 10 schools / Text / results/result/text() / 1..* / <results>
<result result-type=”output”>build 10 schools
</result>
</results>
Result-type / whether it is an output, outcome, or impact indicator / Code list / results/result/@result-type / 1.1
Indicator / The indicator(s) that meet the results. There can be multiple indicators for each ‘result’ / Text / results/result/indicator/ / 0.* / <results>
<result result-type=”output”>build 10 schools
<indicator measure=”unit”>
<indicator-description>number of schools built</indicator-description>
</indicator>
</result>
</results>
Measure / The type of measurement for the indicator value e.g. unit, percentage / Code list / results/result/indicator/@measure / 0.*
Indicator description / The description of the indicator / Text / results/result/indicator/text()
Baseline / The value of the baseline measure A comment on the baseline measure / Text / results/result/indicator/baseline/numbertext() / 0.1 / <indicator measure=”percentage”>
<indicator-description>gross primary school enrolment rate</indicator-description>
<baseline year=”2008” value=”55%”Baseline comment</baseline>
<target year=”2015” value=”85%”Target Comment</target>
<actual year=”2010” value=”62%”Actual Comment</actual>
</indicator>
Year / The Year the baseline measure was taken / YYYY / results/result/indicator/baseline/@year / 0.1
Value / The baseline measure. / Text / results/result/indicator/baseline/@value / 0.1
Target / The target valuecomment for the indicator. There can be many targets set as milestone measures / Text / results/result/indicator/target/numbertext () / 0.*
Target-date / The year the result is aiming to be realised / YYYY / results/result/indicator/target/@year / 0.*
Value / The target value / Text / results/result/indicator/target/@value / 0.*
Actual / A record of the achieved result, or an interim measure to track progress / Text / results/result/indicator/actual/numbertext() / 0.*
Actual-date / The year the actual measure was taken / YYYY / results/result/indicator/actual/@year / 0.*
Value / The actual measure. / Text / results/result/indicator/actual/@value / 0.*
Conditions / conditions / 0..1
attached / A yes/no value stating whether there are conditions attached to the activity / Yes/No / conditions/@attached / 1..1 / <conditions attached=”no” />
condition / Multiple conditions allowed / conditions/condition / 1..*
type / Condition type – e.g. policy, performance. / Condition Type Code / conditions/condition/@type / <condition type=”policy” />
description / The text describing the conditions attached to the activity / Text / conditions/condition/text() / <condition type=”policy”>
text of conditions to go here</condition>
Activity Budget and Planned Disbursements
Section / Item / Definition / Data Format / XML / Occurs / Examples and NotesBudget / budget / The value of the aid activity's budget for each financial year of the recipient as in the original project document. / budget / 0..* / This is wanted as a minimum most useful by the financial year of the recipient country.
(If that is not available, Ccan optionally also be provided for each calendar year and/or financial year of the donor.)
type / Is budget original or revised / Budget Type Code / budget/@type / 1..1 / <budget type=”original”>
period-start / ISO 8601 code for the start date of the reporting period (yyyy-mm-dd). / Date / budget/period-start / 1..1 / <period-start>2011-01-01</period-start>
period-end / ISO 8601 code for the end date of the reporting period (yyyy-mm-dd). / Date / budget/period-end / 1..1 / <period-end>2011-12-31</period-end>
value / The total budget for the specified period in the specified currency. (Positive integer.) / Integer / budget/value/text() / 1..1 / <value value-date="2010-10-01">700000</value>
value-date / Date of value for currency conversions.(yyyy-mm-dd) / Date / budget/value/@value-date / 1..1 / <value value-date="2010-10-01">700000</value>
currency / The ISO 4217 code for the currency in which the project is denominated. [only if different to default currency] / Currency Code / budget/value/@currency / 0..1 / <value currency="GBP" value-date="2010-10-01">700000</value>
Planned Disbursement / planned-disbursement / The amount it is planned to disburse on the activity in each of the next three financial years of the recipient. / planned-disbursement / 0..* / This is wanted as a minimummost useful by the financial year of the recipient country.
(If that is not available, Ccan optionally also be provided for each calendar year and/or financial year of the donor.)
date-updated / The date on which this line of information was last updated. Previous updates for the same period should also be reported. / Date / planned-disbursement/@updated / <planned-disbursement updated=”2010-12-01”>
period-start / ISO 8601 code for the start date of the reporting period (yyyy-mm-dd). / Date / planned-disbursement/period-start / 1..1 / <period-start>2011-01-01</period-start>
period-end / ISO 8601 code for the end date of the reporting period (yyyy-mm-dd). / Date / planned-disbursement/period-end / 1..1 / <period-end>2011-12-31</period-end>
value / The amount to be disbursed in the specified currency. (Positive integer.) / Integer / planned-disbursement/value/text() / 1..1 / <value value-date="2010-11-01">7000</value>
value-date / Date of value for currency conversions.(yyyy-mm-dd) / Date / planned-disbursement/value/@value-date / 1..1 / <value value-date="2010-11-01">7000</value>
currency / The ISO 4217 code for the currency of the disbursement. [only if different to default currency / Currency Code / planned-disbursement/value/@currency / 0..1 / <value currency="GBP" value-date="2010-11-01">7000</value>
Recipient Country Budget Identifier
Section / Item / Definition / Data Format / XML / Occurs / Examples and NotesRecipient Country Budget Identifier / country-budget / 0..*
vocabulary / Vocabulary: name of country or global functional classification system (This allows for country-specific, common codes, or any other classification agreed between countries and donors) / Text / country-budget/@vocabulary / 1..1 / <country-budget vocabulary=”RW-BUDGET”>
accountable-institution / The budget classification and percentage breakdown for the named accountable institution / country-budget/ accountable-institution / 1..*
institution-identifier / The unique organisation identifier for the accountable institution. / Organisation Identifier / country-budget/ accountable-institution/@ref / 0..1 / <accountable-institution ref=”RW-1001”/>
institution-name / The name of the accountable institution. / Text / country-budget/ accountable-institution/text() / 0..1 / <accountable-institution ref=”RW-1001”>Rwandan Ministry of Health</accountable-institution>
institution-share / The percentage of the total commitment that is allocated to this institution (Allows for cases where there is more than one accountable institution; must add up to 100% for all the accountable institutions used) / Percent / country-budget/ accountable-institution /@percent / <accountable-institution ref=”RW-1001” percent=”100”>Rwandan Ministry of Health</accountable-institution>
implementing-institution / The budget classification and percentage breakdown for the named implementing institution / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution / 1..*
implementing institution-identifier / The unique organisation identifier for the implementing institution. / Organisation Identifier / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /@ref / 0..1 / <implementing-institution ref=”RW-1201”/>
implementing institution-name / The name of the implementing institution. / Text / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /text() / 0..1 / < implementing-institution ref=”RW-1201”>Rural Health Department</ implementing-institution>
implementing institution-share / The percentage share allocated to this implementing institution within this accountable institution. (Allows for cases where there is more than one implementing institution; must add up to 100% for all the implementing institutions used) / Percent / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /@percent / < implementing-institution ref=”RW-1201” percent=”100”>Rural Health Department</ implementing-institution>
budget-identifier / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /budget-item
budget-identifier-code / The functional budget code (from the vocabulary specified) / Text / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /budget-item/@code / 1..1 / <budget-item code=”A2”>
budget-identifier-description / The description of the code / Text / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution / budget-item /text() / 0..1 / <budget-item code=”A2”>Rural Clinics Programme</budget-item>
budget-identifier-share / The percentage share allocated to this budget item within this institution. (Allows for more than one budget code per accountable institution; must add up to 100% for each institution used) / Percent / country-budget/ accountable-institution/implementing-institution /budget-item/@percent / <budget-item code=”A2” percent=”60”>Rural Clinics Programme</budget-item>
Capital Expenditure / capital-spend / The percentage of the total commitment that is for capital spending / capital-spend / 0..1
percent / Percent / capital-spend/@percent / 1..1 / <capital-spend percent=”75”/>
B.The IATI Licensing Standard
Open Aid Information Licensing Standard
This Open Aid Information (OAI) Licensing Standard helps encourage the use and reuse of aid information to help provide better, and more effective, aid to those who receive it. The OAI Licensing Standard is the result of work by the IATI Secretariat in collaboration with governments, NGOs, international organisations, lawyers, and open knowledge experts from around the world. This OAI Licensing Standard is deliberately worded in sufficiently general terms that it could be used for any type of aid-related information, not just for information published to the IATI Standard.
Summary of the standard
Open Aid Information compliant with this Standard
●must be public domain or licensed under an attribution-only open license (the “legal tools”) [Element 1];
●the legal tools used must be appropriate for data [Element 3];
●Intellectual Property (IP) Policies related to the Open Aid Information must be in plain language and easily accessible to users [Element 4].
This Standard strongly recommends that Open Aid Information:
●Should use a recognised and established open public license appropriate for databases [Element 2];
●Shouldinclude FAQs and licensing help by the aid information publishers whenever possible [Element 5].
What is open aid information?
This standard concerns open aid information. But what is open aid information?
●By open we mean open as in the Open (Knowledge) Definition — in essence information (data and documents) is open if it can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone.
●By aid informationwe mean data and information on aid flows by both official and private providers of development assistance (inc. NGOs and Foundations)
Element 1: Aid information must be published under public domain waivers or attribution-only open licenses as defined by the OpenKnowledgeDefinition.
The goal is for aid information to be effectively used and added to by others as widely as possible. Therefore the use of licenses which limit commercial re-use or limit the production of derivative works by excluding use for particular purposes or by specific persons or organisations is discouraged. These restrictive licenses make it impossible to effectively integrate and re-purpose datasets and prevent commercial activities that could be used to support preservation and innovation with aid information. As a result, we have selected the OpenKnowledgeDefinition as our standard for openness for aid information as it provides for a stable, accepted, legal standard of openness used in multiple fields.
Further, we want to make aid information as widely usable as possible, even within the context of the Open Knowledge Definition (OKD). Therefore we limit OKD-compliant licenses to those that place aid information into the public domain (also known as dedications or waivers [2]) and those that (at most) require attribution of source. Share-alike clauses [1] for aid information are specifically prohibited under this Standard, as they can cause “license silos” by preventing legal interoperability even between other openly licensed material -- because they require the use of only that share-alike license.
We therefore recommend and limit open aid information compliant with this Standard as:
1.Public domain - no copyright, database rights, or contractual rights over the open aid information. [3] Examples include Creative Commons’ CC0 tool and the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL); OR
2.Attribution-only open licenses - licenses that allow for use and reuse, with the only restriction being that attribution (credit) be given. Examples include the Creative Commons Attribution licenses (CC-BY) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License.
Public domain approaches are preferred for aid information.
We strongly recommend that aid information, especially where the result of public funding, be explicitly placed in the public domain. This is to better serve democracy, transparency, and greater public participation. We understand that this is not always possible or preferable for publishers, and thus an open license requiring only attribution to the source is provided as an alternative.
Publishing aid information in the public domain complies with related open data initiatives, including the PantonPrinciples, and the Science Commons ProtocolforImplementingOpenAccessData. Public domain still means that in many academic disciplines and in other contexts that users will voluntarily follow established social norms of citation and attribution. Social and academic norms can still apply.
Notes:
This standard applies to aid information, and so does allow for some restrictions, such as for non-aid information and for technical reasons, such as:
- Technical restrictions on use of web services (such as limiting the number of calls per hour via an API).
- Any type of disclaimer of warranties.
- “No endorsement” language and separate (non-open) policies for any trademarks or reserved symbols.
[1] Also known as copyleft or reciprocal licensing clauses. Share Alike licenses do comply with the Open Knowledge Definition, but as noted would not comply with this standard.
[2] Copyright vests automatically, and so giving up rights over a work in copyright before they expire (due to end of the term) requires a special tool known as a dedication to the public domain or a waiver of rights. Licenses in this context depend on an underlying copyright to function.
[3] Databases compatible with the ScienceCommonsProtocolforImplementingOpenAccessData and the PantonPrincipleswill fulfil this requirement.
Licenses: Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL); Creative Commons CC0 tool or Public Domain certification; Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY); Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY)
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Element 2: Aid information publishers should use recognised public domain waivers or open licenses.
Making use of recognised open licenses and waivers (together, “legal tools”) helps encourage the greatest use and reuse of aid information by tapping into already existing online communities built around these legal tools. [4] This greatly helps use and reuse as recipients of open aid information don’t have to continually learn new legal terms -- they can learn how one legal tool works and apply it across multiple sources of open aid information.
In economic terms, using an established and widely used open license or waiver lowers the transaction costs for users of aid information and by doing so can increase uptake by the community and increase understanding and therefore compliance with the licenses. For aid information publishers, using an established legal tool means not having to hire lawyers to draft, maintain, and update a specialist legal document.
In simple terms, using recognised tools makes it easier on everyone, including both publishers and users.
[4] Providers of open licenses with recognised communities are often referred to as “Public licensing bodies”. For more information, see
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Element 3: The legal tools used must be appropriate for data.
Aid information published under this initiative will often be data and databases. Many widely recognised licenses are not intended for, and are not appropriate for, data or collections of data (databases). We recommend using legal tools specifically tailored for data for the publication of aid information. The two key elements:
- Legal - the legal tool must clearly cover the rights over data -- including copyright, database rights, and contract -- while taking into account the global networked environment and the many different legal jurisdictions involved. Many content or software licenses don’t include database rights, for example.
- Practical - particularly for open licenses requiring attribution, the legal tools must take into account the practical questions that often come up in a database environment in complying with the license terms, such as how and when to attribute the source.
If a legal tool meets these two elements, generally it can be safe for use for aid information compliant with this standard.