Getting started

There are four simple steps to share your data on agriculture and food security projects in a way that will support:

• Better collaboration between donors;
• Improved targetting of resources;
• Discovery and mapping of local partners;
• Easier evaluation of interventions.

Over 2017 you can get support from the Initiative for Open Ag Funding to work through these steps. Contact us for more information.

Step 1: Identify your agriculture and food security projects

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

CSV

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.

Step 2: Map your current data practices & plan for updates

Our data quality framework may require you to:

• Review activity titles and descriptions;
• Add additional classifications;
• Add additional location data;
• Check that partners are clearly listed; and
• Include information on results;

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:

• Programme or investment officers - who will have the knowledge to provide additional activity information;
• Technical staff - who can adapt databases, or data production workflows, to store and publish enhanced data.

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.

Step 3: Enhance your data

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 organiastion, or it could be carried out as part of a periodic excercise (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.

Step 4: Validate, publish & use

The guidance here will be updated after our tool development workshop.