1. What do we mean by
Transparency and why is
it useful?

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. Headline results
53 NIDOS organisations surveyed (26 small, 12
medium, 11 large, 4 associate) - responses were
either through e-survey or through a telephone
interview.
IATI
61% not heard of it
28.1% heard of it but not clear about it
5 out of the 53 are likely to use it in the near
future

6. 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%

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Workshop: Transparency
Gillian Wilson and Lyndsey McLellan

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

12. Two pieces of research
•NIDOS research of NIDOS members,
2013
• Bond research of Bond and NIDOS
members, 2012

13. 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%

14. NIDOS research
Annual report/Annual review
Associate 50%
Developing 50%
Large 83%
Small/Micro/medium 40%
Average 49%

15. 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

16. 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.

17. Bond research 2012
Findings:
First about Bond members...

18. Report publication
Publications on website
Annual report/Annual
review
Associate 35%
Medium 70%
Large 94%
Average 49%

19. 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

20. Publish no
evaluations
Publish
some
evaluations
Systematical
ly evaluate
and publish
evaluations
Small 96% 4% 0%
Medium 91% 6% 3%
Large 75% 21% 4%
Publishing Evaluations
Publishing evaluations

21. 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)

22. Do not report
against
targets/mileston
es
Do some
reporting against
targets/mileston
es
Systematically
report against
targets/mileston
es using outputs
and outcomes
Do not report
against
targets/mileston
es
Do some
reporting against
targets/mileston
es
Systematically
report against
targets/mileston
es 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

23. 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.
Publish annual
report
Publish financial
report
NIDOS 17% 13%
CADA 31% 31%

24. 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

25. 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?

26. Some case studies...
Governance:
•Committee members
•Annual Reports/Annual Accounts
•Basic Policies on Governance

27. Board Members

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

29. What help is on offer
What policies would be
most relevant to your
organisation?

32. Some case studies...
What do we do?
Needs assessment and community
involvement
What countries / what geographical locations
What projects
What strategy / targets?

36. Some case studies...
What are our results / impact?
Case studies
Project reports
Project evaluation reports
Summaries of evaluations
Strategy level data and impact

38. Scotland v Poverty
case studies
August 22, 2008 NIDOS AGM

43. Some case studies...
Our money and how we use it:
Annual Accounts
Budgets
Charts of income/sources of funding
Charts of expenditure / types of spending
Project costs
IATI publishing of funding flows

44. Our money and how we use it:
Annual Accounts
Budgets
Charts of income/sources of funding
Charts of expenditure / types of spending
Project costs
IATI publishing of funding flows

45. Our money and how we use it:
Annual Accounts
Budgets
Charts of income/sources of funding
Charts of expenditure / types of spending
Project costs
IATI publishing of funding flows

46. 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

47. Publishing to IATI
This is required for all DFID grant holders
Support 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

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