Preparation for a Proposal

The publication of a proposal and the deployment of changes are well-defined processes that are the same for all proposals. They are preceded by a period of research, consultation and refinement that is not well-defined because it is different for every proposal.

The preparation should be proportionate to the scale and impact of the change. Three examples are given below as a guide.

Fixing some typos

In 2023, a Secretariat staff member noticed some typos in field descriptions. They proposed alternative wording, and checked with a colleague to confirm that their new wording didn’t introduce any new ambiguity, cause any new confusion, or have any other unintended effects. The results of this conversation and details of the changes were the basis of the first proposal

Updating well-used codelists

OECD DAC codelists are widely used in published IATI data and had fallen out of sync. An initial review also revealed that the format of the upstream codelists had changed.

Due to the widespread use and potential for validation changes, we felt it was proportionate to check all published IATI data that uses the codelists to ensure that we didn’t accidentally cause any data to become invalid. We created a Deepnote notebook to conduct this analysis.

This also helped us quantify the impact of our delay in updating the codelists and therefore decide on an appropriate cadence for future updates.

The product of the work can be seen in this proposal

Tightening rulesets

We may choose to tighten some rulesets, making rules that previously generated warning instead generate errors.

As part of our research, we should conduct analysis to identify all organisations whose data will be affected, and quantify the impact. We will want to carry out a communications and advocacy campaign to inform organisations of the forthcoming changes and to encourage them to improve their data. We can track the progress of the campaign by re-running our analysis.

After a suitable period of analysis and outreach, perhaps 3 months, we can proceed with the proposal.