IATI's humanitarian marker: A game changer for aid effectiveness?

The global standard for aid transparency is expected to get a major upgrade next year, with a marker to denote humanitarian spending.

The addition of such a marker to the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard could become a game changer as it is designed to speed up reporting on emergency-related commitments — ideally within 24 hours after a pledge is made. At present, most IATI publishers — including donors, governments and nongovernmental organizations — refresh their aid data quarterly, although some update on a monthly basis.

“If we know that a certain financial commitment is about delivering X number of tents or whatever, we want that data to be available as soon as possible, so that those people managing the emergency on the ground have access to the data as soon as possible,” Bill Anderson, data and information architect at Development Initiatives, told Devex, suggesting that this will enable humanitarian agencies to plan their activities more quickly, which would be helpful given the urgency of the required response in the field.