There are four simple steps to share your data on agriculture and food security projects in a way that will support:
Over 2017 you can get support from the Initiative for Open Ag Funding to work through these steps. Contact us for more information.
Open Ag Funding is about publishing enhanced information on investments in agriculture and food security.
Finding your activities
Search your project or investment database or lists for any activities or investments with a focus on agriculture or food security.
If you currently classify your activities using the OECD DAC Sector/Purpose codes, we have prepared a list of relevant codes you may wish to check.
DAC Sector Codes
Code | Title |
---|---|
12240 | Basic nutrition (under 120 HEALTH/122 Basic health) |
14040 | River basins development (under 140 WATER AND SANITATION) |
311 | AGRICULTURE |
31110 | Agricultural policy and administrative management |
31120 | Agricultural development |
31130 | Agricultural land resources |
31140 | Agricultural water resources |
31150 | Agricultural inputs |
31161 | Food crop production |
31162 | Industrial crops/export crops |
31163 | Livestock |
31164 | Agrarian reform |
31165 | Agricultural alternative development |
31166 | Agricultural extension |
31181 | Agricultural education/training |
31182 | Agricultural research |
31191 | Agricultural services |
31192 | Plant and post_harvest protection and pest control |
31193 | Agricultural financial services |
31194 | Agricultural co_operatives |
31195 | Livestock/veterinary services |
312 | FORESTRY |
31210 | Forestry policy and administrative management |
31220 | Forestry development |
31261 | Fuelwood/charcoal |
31281 | Forestry education/training |
31282 | Forestry research |
31291 | Forestry services |
313 | FISHING |
31310 | Fishing policy and administrative management |
31320 | Fishery development |
31381 | Fishery education/training |
31382 | Fishery research |
31391 | Fishery services |
32161 | Agro_industries (under 321 - INDUSTRY) |
32162 | Forest industries (under 321 - INDUSTRY) |
32165 | Fertilizer plants (under 321 - INDUSTRY) |
43040 | Rural development (under 430 - Other multisector) |
520 | Developmental food aid/Food security assistance |
52010 | Food aid/Food security programmes |
72040 | Emergency food aid |
If you have a large number of agriculture and food security activities, you may wish to pilot the Open Ag Funding framework with a sub-set, focussing on a single country or value-chain.
Our data quality framework may require you to:
for each of the activities you identified in Step 1. Each item in the quality framework has been designed around the data that is needed to improve support improved coordination and funding impact.
Creating improved data will need input from:
The approach to this step will depend on whether you already publish data using the International Aid Transparency Initiative standard or not.
IATI publishers
Check whether the database or workflow that is used to produce your IATI data includes the fields requested in the Open Ag Funding framework.
Identify whether new fields can be added to the database information is first stored in, or whether new data will have to be included 'downstream'.
New publishers
You will need to decide on an approach to producing IATI data. This may involve mapping your systems against the wider IATI Standard, as well as against the Open Ag Funding framework.
Publishers generally split between (a) building direct integrations with a project database; (b) exporting data periodically into CSV, and converting the data into the IATI XML format.
In an upstream approach you would modify the main database or system you use to create your IATI data to directly include Open Ag Funding fields.
We are working with creators of common IATI tools to add support for Open Ag Funding fields to their tools, supporting improved upstream publishing.
In a downstream approach you would continue current data production practices, but add in a step that works with the exported data to add extra fields.
We are working to develop simple spreadsheet templates that can be used to create or annotate IATI data with the Open Ag Funding fields. Get in touch if you would like to pilot use of these templates.
There are two choices to make when planning how to enhance your data:
(1) Automated vs manual
It is possible to use auto-coding tools to apply additional classifications to activities using project descriptions and documents, and in some cases, automatic geocoding is also possible.
However, such approaches are not 100% reliable, and how successful they will be depends on your current data quality.
On the other hand, manually updating activity descriptions and classifications may require programme officer time and expertise, and may be more difficult to apply to past activities, rather than future activities.
(2) Periodic vs ongoing enhancement
Providing enhanced data could be part of the everyday business process of the organisation, or it could be carried out as part of a periodic exercise (e.g. once a quarter) that is designed to not only capture data, but also support in-house knowledge-sharing and collaboration.
The guidance here will be updated after our tool development workshop.
The guidance here will be updated after our tool development workshop.