Timeliness is one of the three core Busan principles and accounts for a third of the Indicator Score. It has two components:
This table seeks to measure how often a publisher updates their data. There is no simple answer as to what constitutes an update. Can any trivial edit be regarded as an update? As transactions are the most numerous element reported in IATI the adopted methodology assumes that a publisher has updated their data if a transaction with a more recent transaction date than previously published is detected across the publisher’s entire portfolio. The table records how many times in each of the last twelve months such changes have been detected.
The time-lag statistics attempt to assess how up to date the data is at the point that it is refreshed. For instance a publisher may refresh their data monthly, but the refreshed data is in fact three months old. Alternatively a publisher may only refresh their data once a year, but when they do it contains current data that is less than one month out of date. Transactions are the most numerous and most regularly refreshed elements in reported IATI activities and they are therefore used to make this assessment. The table of statistics shows the number of transaction dates reported in each of the last twelve calendar months. The current month is shown for informational purposes, but excluded from the assessment.
OJ I think the point you make regarding booked disbursements is totally valid. We need to find a way to make the methodology work.
We have not measured frequency beyond monthly as this is currently IATI’s stated best practice. With the demand for more timely data increasing, particularly on the humanitarian front, it is worth considering whether to include weekly reporting into the frame. One for the next TAG?
Yes - let’s try to move ahead. But my point was aiming at the count of actual updates, recorded by IATI. 8 in September and 17 in October - there is an error somewhere, since we update the DB every night.
But - we will get back, when we have revisited our current cache-sollution, and are able to document that the error isn’t on our side.