How to create an activity file

Creating an IATI activity file requires you to do three things:

  • Create your project in Logframer
  • Make sure you complete IATI specific information. First and foremost this means you need to enter a valid IATI identifier
  • Create the IATI activity file.

IATI identification

 

IATI-specific information

To make sure you can see all the IATI-specific fields and lists in Logframer, select the IATI activity view mode in the File toolbar. Most IATI specific settings can be found in IATI tab of the Project information window.

Other IATI-specific information can be found in other locations:

  • For each partner organisation, you need to include its IATI registry code (if it has one). Make sure your own organisation is listed as well in the partner list (once you've completed the information in the My organisation dialogue Logframer will add your organisation to each new project). Every organisation in the list is included as a partner organisation, unless you don't want to (see IATI settings). Contact persons are not included by default, so if you want to include someone as a contact person you should indicate this in their IATI settings.
  • Make sure to include your intervention zone(s). Logframer will automatically create coordinates and country codes. For regional information or specific locations you need to specify a number of things on the IATI tab of the Intervention zone dialogue.
  • Transactions are a key concept in aid transparency and you should pay special attention to them

Whatever you do, do not forget to include the IATI registry code of your project in the IATI tab of the Project information window.

Insert the IATI identifier

Apart from these special attention points, the only thing you have to do is design your project and press the Create IATI file button. Logframer will turn all the information of your project in a IATI activity file. However, do note that IATI activity files contain less information than Logframer files, so not all the information of your project will be included. For instance, IATI activity files do not register verification sources, risks, assumptions or dependences (third and fourth column of your logframe). Likewise IATI doesn't support the number of sub-activities or sub-indicators that Logframer does, so you will only find the top-level indicators and activities in your activity file.

Speaking of indicators, IATI activity files can only handle indicators with values or percentages - see the next topic for more information.

 

Indicator targets and actual values

IATI activity files are limited in that can only handle indicators with values or percentages. Logframer transforms other types of indicators (yes/no indicators, multiple-choice, response scales, etc.) to value-based indicators, using the scores as values.

On the other hand IATI requires you to indicate both target values and actual values for each indicator. When you've selected the IATI activity view mode, you will therefore see that there are additional columns on the Targets tab where you can register the actual values:

Targets and actual values

This option is only available for indicators of question type 'Value' or 'Percentage', because these are the only indicator types that IATI supports. For other types of indicators you can't register an actual value for now.

 

Create the IATI activity file

Once your project is complete you can create the IATI activity file (xml file). Go to the File toolbar and in the Import & export section click on the IATI drop-down button.

Select the second option: Create an IATI file (xml)

Create an IATI file

Give your document a name and click Save.

You can also create an IATI activity file that contains multiple projects. All you have to do is open the Logframer projects that you want to include in this file. Then you click on the Create an IATI file (xml) button again, but because more than one project is opened, you will get to see the following dialogue:

Exporting multiple projects into a single IATI activity file

Choose the second option if you want indeed to create a file containing all the opened projects. Below you can choose in what order the activities will be included in the file: ordered by start date, title (alphabetically), country (idem) or simply in the order in which they have been opened.