We wouldn’t blame you if you missed it, but your IATI data were the topic of a political debate, back when the Tweede Kamer (the House of Representatives in the Netherlands) discussed the 2022 budget. Members voiced the need to see more information on the activities on the site www.nlontwikkelingssamenwerking.nl, nicknamed the ‘OS Portal’.

The OS Portal is one of the ways in which we inform Parliament on the ODA activities, and it is based on IATI data. So far, it only contained our own data, but to give Parliament a better understanding what the activities are about, the website now includes links to the documents published by our implementing partners – and that’s you.

What does this mean for you? It means that all documents that you publish in activities funded by the Netherlands, now appear on the website www.nlontwikkelingssamenwerking.nl, and are used by members of Parliament.

We want to mention two things which are always worth paying attention to, but perhaps you should give them a double check:

  • Have you actually made the documents public? Are all project plans, evaluations, and so on, published the way they should be, and have you not accidentally kept them behind a login?
  • Are you sure there is no sensitive information in the documents you are linking to? If you want to protect your implementing partner’s identity, make sure it is not accidentally revealed in a document.

We are of course happy that IATI data is used more and more, not just by our own Parliament, but also by international NGOs, governments of developing countries, and journalists. This makes it all the more important that your activities are visible too, and published correctly.

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