11.
Canada – Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Good
OVERVIEW
Canada began publishing to the IATI Standard in October 2012. In 2013, along with other G8 members (now G7), Canada reaffirmed its commitment to implement the common standard (including IATI) by 2015. Its ambitious implementation schedule outlines plans to publish to over 90% of the assessed IATI fields by the end of 2015. Since 2013, it has expanded its IATI publication to include activity classifications, objectives and forward-looking budgets. No plans have been released for publishing IATI information from other departments, notably the Department of Finance, the second largest allocator of Canadian ODA. The government’s open data portal, includes DFATD’s IATI data. Information on aid activities can also be found on the Project Browser database. Canada is a member of OGP and has included IATI in its National Action Plan. Canada has also endorsed the Open Aid Partnership.
ANALYSIS
Canada scores 71.7%, placing it in the good category. Its overall score has increased by nearly 10 percentage points since 2013, however there has been a relative decline in its ranking due to more comprehensive IATI publication by other organisations. It ranks fourth out of 50 bilateral organisations. Canada leads on organisation financial information among the bilateral organisations and performs well on organisation planning and basic activity information, scoring over 90% on these sub-groups of indicators. It performs less well on the provision of financial data on individual activities and performance information (results, conditions and impact appraisals). Canada does not currently provide links to project documents in its IATI files. Of the 22 indicators that take format into account, 18 are published in machine-readable formats.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Canada should continue to improve its IATI publication so it is comprehensive and includes sub-national location information, links to project documents and transactions for all activities. DFATD should work with other aid-spending ministries to extend the coverage of information published to IATI, so it provides a full picture of Canadian development cooperation.
- It should use its IATI data in its programming and coordination processes and promote the access and use of this information by others.
- Canada should continue to champion work on the IATI budget identifier, aiming for roll out in 2015.
DONOR PROFILE
First published to IATI:
Oct-12
2013 ATI Score:
62.58%
2013 ATI Rank:
8