Does anyone have information (beyond anecdotal) on which location sub-elements are most useful to data users? I’ve seen different combinations, but most usually just the point (coordinates) and name being given in the data. Here’s a list of the sub-elements.
location-reach
location-id
name
description
activity-description
administrative
point
exactness
location-class
feature-designation
Look forward to hearing back! Also, has anyone written or seen user-friendly guidance on how to use the location element? So this would be supplementary to the IATI element page, and any donor guidance. If it’s for Aidstream, even better!
Thanks Taryn Taryn Davis - that’s good info. Do you remember whether there was anything that came out of the Open Ag initiative? I seem to remember that location was one of the things that Reid looked at?
Hi Sarah. We identified the location-reach element being important, in part because it helped defined what the location actually referred to. For example, if a project trains a number of teachers from across the country in the capital city, what is the location?
Using the location-reach element helped resolve this as they could, for example, put the location as the capital city but then define it as the physical place where the activity took place.
Thanks James Coe , useful to know. Would you also expect to see additional location element/s used to show where the teachers came from (ie location-reach = beneficiaries location)? Or is that getting unnecessarily complicated?
Based on my personal thoughts – i’d say that would be helpful. (1) understanding where the beneficiaries are is an important aspect of understanding where the aid is going while (2) including this element would help counter the narrative that “most aid is going to the capital city / regional capital” when it might just be that the aid is being implemented there but the impact will be spread across several areas.
(1) = good for the users.
(2) = good for the publishers.
In my opinion, the issue we need to address is when publishers just say “whole of country”.
Here’s a blog I wrote on it a few years ago.