1. Session 6 – Communications & Outreach
Joni Hillman, IATI Secretariat
Joan Atherton, USAID

2. Outreach priorities delivered (since Dec 2015)
World Humanitarian Summit
European Development Days
Workshop with emerging Europe & CIS donors
Since December 2015, the IATI Secretariat has undertaken outreach activities to deliver priorities agreed by Members when they last met at the IATI Steering Committee meeting.
Members decided that the World Humanitarian Summit was a good opportunity for IATI to promote its value in humanitarian crises. Ahead of the WHS, an IATI Secretariat representative from Development Initiatives attended a meeting in Washington DC in April to brief Grand Bargain Sherpas. At the Summit in May, IATI co-hosted a side-event and produced a written political and technical briefing on the case for publishing humanitarian activities to IATI. A commitment to publishing to IATI within two years was included in the final text of the Grand Bargain and signed up to by humanitarian actors at the summit.
Another clear priority for IATI Members at the previous Steering Committee was engaging in the Second High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation in Nairobi. Ahead of the meeting to be held in November, IATI has submitted a response to zero draft of the outcome document and attended a workshop of the Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) in Barcelona this month.
IATI has also engaged in other outreach opportunities, including having a presence at the European Development Days, a capacity building workshop delivered to emerging donors in Europe, and was represented at a DG- DEVCO experts meeting on transparency.
EU Member States’ Experts

3. Future outreach priorities
ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment
International Open Data Conference, Madrid
GPEDC High Level Meeting, Nairobi
The Communications and outreach report outlines, in detail, future outreach opportunities for IATI. These include continuing to promote the use of IATI in humanitarian crises by engaging with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Humanitarian Affairs Segment. IATI also wishes to engage with, and provide technical support to, the signatories of the Grand Bargain and other humanitarian actors to meet the commitment made at the World Humanitarian Summit for humanitarian financing to be published to IATI within two years.
As mentioned, IATI plans to continue engaging in the Second High-Level Meeting of the GPEDC in Nairobi in November, aiming to secure a reference to IATI in the outcome document. The International Open Data Conference in Madrid and the Open Data Partnership Summit in Paris also present IATI with good opportunities to promote the initiative amongst its key stakeholders.
Open Government Partnership Summit, Paris
WHS Grand Bargain IATI commitment

4. Communications – Key stats Sept 2015 – to date
Website: 50 news items; +30% page views
Twitter: 200 tweets; +112% profile visits
Members’ Bulletin: +21% subscribers
TAG News: +10% subscribers
Last year, IATI Secretariat member DI took responsibility of managing communications, and recruited IATI’s Communications Adviser at the start of Year 3 or September As well as providing communications support to IATI’s outreach activities, IATI’s other key activities were promoted through our existing communications channels. A full list of activities promoted by IATI communications can be found in Part 2 of the Communications and outreach report.
The report includes key statistics that we see on this slide for IATI’s main communications channels. Since the beginning of September, there has been substantial increases in audience size and engagement for each channel compared to the same period in the previous year. For example, the number of visits to our twitter profile page has increased by 112% and the number of page views on our website has increased by 30%.
Media coverage: 38 mentions; +27% mentions

5. Future comms priorities
Strategy area
Activities
Data use
Mapping users, data use materials, promote the use of tools, develop best practice
Data quality
Promote IATI Dashboard, Registry upgrade, publishing tools, publisher factsheets
IATI Standard
Support wide stakeholder input into consultations of upgrade & develop
implementation plan to make publishers aware of changes
Governance
Annual Report 2016, updating Governing Board and Members’ Assembly info
Outreach
Promoting outreach activities
Communications development
New IATI website & brand development project (budget dependent), IATI communications strategy
Led by Secretariat member DI, the communications and outreach report provides detail of future communications activities based on IATI’s existing priorities, and future priorities set by the new strategy and work plan. Promoting IATI data use is an important priority and activities include undertaking a detailed mapping exercise of all data users, and creating materials that support users, for example through producing data use videos, manuals and a webinar series.
IATI Communications will promote other IATI priorities through new and existing communications channels, including engaging IATI publishers to improve data quality, involving stakeholders in future IATI Standard upgrades and keeping IATI Members updated with IATI governance.
Finally, creating a new IATI website, developing the IATI brand and creating a comprehensive communications strategy are key development priorities for IATI.

6. HLM2 Draft Agenda

7. A reminder of the Busan commitment
Paragraph 23 (c):
'Implement a common, open standard for electronic publication of timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information on resources provided through development co- operation, taking into account the statistical reporting of the OECD-DAC and the complementary efforts of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and others. This standard must meet the information needs of developing countries and non-state actors, consistent with national requirements. We will agree on this standard and publish our respective schedules to implement it by December 2012, with the aim of implementing it fully by December 2015.'

8. IATI input into HLM2 zero draft
Summary of points:
Transparency is a success story for GPEDC
The outcome document should acknowledge that a much wider range of development actors are now publishing their data to the IATI Standard, illustrating the benefits of a multi-stakeholder approach.
While IATI has played a key role in improving the supply of data on development cooperation, it is the use of that data, especially at country level, that has the potential to be truly transformative in terms of development outcomes.

9. Key considerations for Members
Input into HLM2 GPEDC - what do Members want to see in the outcome document on IATI/transparency?
WHS follow-up - what plans do Members have for implementing the Grand Bargain commitment to IATI? What role should IATI play in monitoring this?   
Identifying other opportunities - what other global, regional or national events do members think IATI should prioritise over the next 12 months ?
We are keen to hear Members’ thoughts on future opportunities for IATI and have three key questions for discussion in the rest of this session.