What do we mean by Transparency and why

is it useful?

What is NIDOS doing?

NIDOS is part of a collaborative project with Bond www.bond.org.uk funded by DFID, to encourage our members to: • strengthen their transparency • publish to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) The workshop will look at both of these aspects

Transparency...

Transparency is about being open and clear about what an organisation is doing, how it is doing it and its impact/performance.

We are encouraging members to provide clear and accessible information on projects, governance and performance

NIDOS Baseline study Feb/Mar 13

Purpose of the baseline• Find out from members what they already publish on their websites• What help members are looking for to improve transparency • the level of awareness of IATI and whether members are likely to use it

Headline results53 NIDOS organisations surveyed (26 small, 12 medium, 11 large, 4 associate) - responses were either through e-survey or through a telephone interview.

IATI61% not heard of it28.1% heard of it but not clear about it5 out of the 53 are likely to use it in the near future

NIDOS research: Are these on websites?

- Board of Trustees 61.5%- Annual Report 49.1%- Annual Accounts 43.9%- Project Documents 14.0%- Project Evaluation documents 12.3%- Outcome level targets and indicators 1.8%- Reporting on strategic outcomes 5.3%- Reporting on project outcomes/milestones 1.8%- None of the above 24.6%

Voluntary - but why be interested?

•Research shows people are interested in knowing more – both individuals and larger funders – as indicated by NPC research•DFID requires IATI of all grant holders and funding this project on transparency generally•Indications are that SG might also be looking at using IATI in the future and are also keen that organisations share the results of their work

What aspects will we follow?

We will monitor members’ publishing of

project-level data on websites, as an indicator of overall transparency.

Specifically we will look at:•project descriptions, •geographic details, •funders and partners, •how much performance data is published

What help is on offer

• one to one advice on transparency• briefing on basic good practice and on how to use IATI• information leaflet will become available about basic good practice •Contact effectiveness@nidos.org.uk

Workshop: Transparency

Gillian Wilson and Lyndsey McLellan

Process...

• Welcome – introductions • Some background information / research• Group activity• Case studies and discussion

Two pieces of research

•NIDOS research of NIDOS members, 2013• Bond research of Bond and NIDOS members, 2012

NIDOS research: Are these on websites?

- Board of Trustees 61.5%- Annual Report 49.1%- Annual Accounts 43.9%- Project Documents 14.0%- Project Evaluation documents 12.3%- Outcome level targets and indicators 1.8%- Reporting on strategic outcomes 5.3%- Reporting on project outcomes/milestones 1.8%- None of the above 24.6%

NIDOS research

Annual report/Annual review

Associate 50%

Developing 50%

Large 83%Small/Micro/medium 40%Average 49%

NIDOS research

Reasons for not having items on website•Many websites are being rewritten and updated.•Small organisations struggle to find volunteers with the skills to keep a website up to date.•Organisations would like advice on what to do

NIDOS Research: International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)

90% of organisations either hadn't heard of IATI or if they had didn't really know what it is.

however,

84% of organisations would like to know more about IATI from NIDOS.

Bond research 2012Findings:

First about Bond members...

Report publication

Publications on website

 Annual report/Annual review

Associate 35%

Medium 70%

Large 94%

Average 49%

Breakdown all spending by country or project

Report the geographical locations of all projects

Describe all activities

Small 16% 51% 48%Medium 15% 72% 65%Large 35% 81% 65%Average 22% 68% 59%

Reporting on project specific information

Project specific information

Publish no evaluations

Publish some evaluations

Systematically evaluate and publish evaluations

Small 96% 4% 0%Medium 91% 6% 3%Large 75% 21% 4%

Publishing Evaluations

Publishing evaluations

Number of organisations surveryed who had a 2008-11 PPA

Published their PPA evaluation

Did not publish their PPA evaluation

Percentage who published

23 7 16 30%

PPA reporting

PPA evaluations(Programme Partnership Agreements)

Do not report against targets/milestones

Do some reporting against targets/milestones

Systematically report against targets/milestones using outputs and outcomes

Do not report against targets/milestones

Do some reporting against targets/milestones

Systematically report against targets/milestones using outputs and outcomes

Small 100% 0% 0% Small 100% 0% 0%Medium 95% 5% 0% Medium 88% 6% 5%Large 92% 2% 6% Large 83% 13% 4%

Strategic Plan Reporting against targets/milestones

Programme/project reporting against targets/milestones

Reporting against targets and milestones

Bond Research on: NIDOS and CADA members

None of the NIDOS and CADA members surveyed report progress against milestones/targets.

Of those surveyed no NIDOS members and only 1 CADA member (Christian Aid Ireland) published evaluations.

Publ ish annual report

Publ ish fi nancia l report

NIDOS 17% 13%CADA 31% 31%

Pairs Activity

What top 10 things would you want to know about a charity if you were:

•Going to give them money•From OSCR•Going to offer to volunteer•Going to offer to join the management committee•From a potential partner organisation•A community leader in the country where they work

Some case studies...

Transparency about ...•How do we govern ourselves?•What do we do?•What is our impact and results?•How do we raise and spend money?

Some case studies...

Governance: •Committee members•Annual Reports/Annual Accounts•Basic Policies on Governance

Board Members

Is there anything else we would like to see in this list?

What help is on offer

What policies would be most relevant to your

organisation?

Some case studies...

What do we do? Needs assessment and community involvementWhat countries / what geographical locationsWhat projectsWhat strategy / targets?

Some case studies...

What are our results / impact?Case studiesProject reportsProject evaluation reportsSummaries of evaluationsStrategy level data and impact

Scotland v Poverty case studies

August 22, 2008 NIDOS AGM

Some case studies...

Our money and how we use it:Annual AccountsBudgetsCharts of income/sources of fundingCharts of expenditure / types of spendingProject costs IATI publishing of funding flows

Our money and how we use it:Annual AccountsBudgetsCharts of income/sources of fundingCharts of expenditure / types of spendingProject costs IATI publishing of funding flows

Our money and how we use it:Annual AccountsBudgetsCharts of income/sources of fundingCharts of expenditure / types of spendingProject costs IATI publishing of funding flows

IATI

IATI stands for International Aid Transparency Initiative: http://iatiregistry.org/

It is a common, open, international standard for publishing more, and better, information about aid and is online.

IATI was launched in Sept 2008 in Ghana and currently has 148 organisations publishing on it

Publishing to IATI

This is required for all DFID grant holdersSupport is provided by Bond to its members who want to publish – we are developing this expertise in NIDOS at present

This data is accessible to other organisations, host governments, and any communities that are online and helps your organisation’s accountability

NIDOS and IATI

What support would you like?How many organisations are likely to want to register and add their data?