Overview: Expression of Interest (EOI) Pre-qualification of potential service providers for the IATI Data Use Fund to increase and diversify the usage of IATI data; improve tools for data usage; provide clear guidance for users and facilitate the integration of IATI data with Aid Management Systems (AIMS). Background: IATI is a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve the transparency of aid, development, and humanitarian resources in order to increase their effectiveness in tackling poverty. IATI brings together donor and recipient countries, civil society organizations, and other experts in aid information who are committed to working together to increase the transparency and openness of aid. At the center of IATI is the IATI Standard, a format and framework for publishing data on development cooperation activities, intended to be used by all organizations in development, including government donors, private sector organizations, and national and international NGOs. Over 650 organizations are now publishing IATI data and IATI supports publishers to continually improve the quality of their IATI data to respond to the needs of all stakeholders and facilitate access to executive tools and support to use this information for better decision-making. While IATI has been very successful in working with publishers to increase the supply of data since it was launched during the Third High Level Forum for Aid Effectiveness in Accra, 2008, there is still a need to increase and diversify the use of the data. Beyond individual examples from some partner countries, IATI data is not yet routinely or systematically used in support of international development goals and one of the main objectives of the Data Use Fund is to increase the integration of IATI data in Aid Management Systems (AIMS) on the national level and therewith increase data use in national planning processes. The following key challenges have been identified in regard to IATI data use: - Partner countries have technical or other difficulties in integrating IATI data into national systems;
- Lack of basic awareness, training and guidance, particularly amongst non-technical audiences, on the availability and usage of data;
- Data quality issues affect trust in IATI data and limit its usefulness;
- Existing tools, including the IATI website, Datastore and d-portal may not be user-friendly to non-technical users and do not facilitate easy access to the data in common usable formats;
- Language barriers, connectivity and low levels of data literacy impact accessibility and use in different countries and regions.
In order to address the outline challenges above, the IATI Board has set up the IATI Data Use Fund, which aligns to the Data Use Strategy and its monitoring and results framework with five different outcomes: - Raise awareness of IATI as a source of aid data and develop a common understanding of the priority needs of different user groups.
- Improve data quality and usability in order to assure users of its reliability, including through the development of feedback mechanisms.
- Improve existing tools and develop new, user-friendly tools that help multiple actors access and use IATI data.
- Improve guidance, training and support for specific user groups.
- Promote integration of IATI data into partner country aid systems and processes.
UNDP/BPPS is soliciting expressions of interest from qualified service providers that are readily available to provide support to implementation of effective and targeted measures in line with the objectives listed above, specifically focusing on the following themes: Awareness raising Foreseen activities in this work stream shall include awareness raising measures and campaigns that promote the usage of IATI data among a diverse group of stakeholders (government officials, media/journalists, CSOs (on national and local level)) as well as grass-root organizations and citizens. Awareness raising campaigns can be organized online through the use of traditional or social media, as well as in-country through the organization of events, workshops and trainings or through organizing learning/ information booths during relevant events, fares, conference, etc. Improve IATI data quality Activities related to this work stream shall focus on improving the capacities of IATI publishers and hence either include direct training of publishers on data management and the IATI Standard and the related key-aspects of high quality data (forward-looking, comprehensive, timeliness) or shall focus on improving data quality through the development of feedback loops to establish a direct dialogue between publishers, tool developers and data users and thereby develop deeper understanding of the core issues and subsequently contribute to improving the overall quality of IATI data. Develop user-friendly IATI tools There are numerous (online) tools to publish, upload or search IATI data available (see an overview here) with d-portal, the Datastore and the Registry being the most prominent ones. The IATI members are, however, committed to constantly broaden and ease the use of the ever-increasing amounts of IATI data and hence, we encourage service providers to provide innovative ideas and designs for new tools that complement the existing IATI tools and further widen the use of IATI data. IATI User Guidance User stories have highlighted that the usage of the complex IATI datasets remains a challenge, especially for less familiar users, users from different educational or linguistic backgrounds. Activities in this lot shall center on the development of new guidance material in different forms and languages (especially French, Portuguese and Spanish). Integration of IATI data into Aid Management Systems (AIMS) The direct import of IATI data into Aid Management Systems and other country systems has proven a major challenge. (For details, compare the Development Gateway Report: Use of IATI in Country Systems.) Activities in this work stream shall focus on assessing the underlying (technical and political) issues that prevent partner countries from systematically integrating IATI data into the Aid Management Systems or other national systems and focus on providing durable solutions. Process of submitting the expression of interest and next steps Interested organizations and individuals are kindly requested to provide necessary documentation and information indicating that they are qualified to perform the small-scale service contracts through submitting the Expression of Interest in Microsoft Forms. This EOI exercise serves to identify a pool of interested companies and individuals ready to undertake different activities in support of the broader Data Use Strategy. We encourage commercial service providers, civil society organizations and other organizations from all parts of the world that have a keen interest in transparency and accountability and/or have worked to support the objectives of IATI before and have suitable pre-experience and expertise to submit their interest for implementing activities under this Data Use Fund. Formal Request for Proposal processes will follow within each of the work streams (themes) outlined above over the course of the next 14 months. Participating in this EOI process will not disqualify actors who may bid on formal RFP process to follow afterwards, but participation will serve to streamline the process and pre-identify suitable contractors. Qualified organizations and individuals will receive notice of all calls for proposals under the IATI Data Use Fund. The selection criteria for receiving funding under the IATI Data Use Fund will be specified in detail in the individual call for proposal but value for money, sustainability, regional-balance and gender-sensitivity will be key values for the selection process and innovative. Cross-country or cross-regional approaches are encouraged. Any clarification on the Expression of Interest process should be sent via e-mail to bpps.procurement@undp.org with a copy to lea.zoric@undp.org mentioning the subject as “Inquiry Expression of Interest (EOI) – IATI Data Use Fund”. The EOI and must be submitted on or before 8th April 2018 through Microsoft Forms under this link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Xtvls0QpN0iZ9XSIrOVDGRDpqm4km8FFpHO3bqhvj3JUMTAyRFY0UEJRTkpXTThNWklSTEhPVzVOMC4u | 
