Open Information Policy

Effective Date: September 2018
This policy supersedes all previous policies related to administration of open information.

Purpose
To effectively build systemic solutions, Pact must be transparent about its work and accountable to its partners and shareholders. This policy outlines how Pact shares programmatic information across the organization and externally.

Note: Programmatic information refers to high-level information about the nature of one of Pact’s awards. Examples include award name, obligated budget, sector, and start and end dates. Note that programmatic data (i.e., the data an award gathers as part of its programmatic activities) is not included in this definition.

Applicability
This policy applies to all awards across all Pact subsidiaries on which Pact is the prime implementing partner or a sub-awardee working under another prime awardee.

General Guidelines
Our staff, shareholders, and other stakeholders (e.g., government officials, community leaders, partners, funders) have a right to know about our work, and making this information available helps them make informed decisions. Therefore, we strive to be open and transparent with Pact’s knowledge, results, and information.

In 2013, Pact became the first US-based NGO to comply with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standards for publishing international aid information. The IATI guidelines prescribe that we publish certain fields on the IATI website every six months. The IATI reporting process, including the required fields, is described in detail in the Open Information Reporting Process resource.

In addition to these IATI guidelines, awards must follow their funders’ open information guidelines. These include USAID’s ADS 579, FCDO’s Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy, and the EU’s Open Data Policy. As additional funder requirements are created, the Open Information Reporting Process resource will be updated.

Policy Implementation
Every Pact project is required to share information, except under the conditions listed below.

IATI allows organizations to determine what information may be excluded from public view. Therefore, Pact may choose not to publish information under the following conditions, unless required by a funder:

  • The information falls under a non-disclosure policy
  • The funder wishes to remain anonymous or prefers that program information not be published
  • Publication of information would create a security issue (see FCDO Exclusion Guidance)

In addition, Pact commits to:

  • Notify all funders of our policy to publish information in our contractual agreements
  • Publish this Open Information Policy on our website, and link to our published information on other websites (e.g., IATI)

Pact uses a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (CC BY-SA) for the information we publish on IATI. This attribution also can be found on many of our guidance documents available for distribution and use on our public website’s resource library. The Creative Commons Attribution states that the public can alter and build upon our work, even for commercial purposes, as long as Pact is credited and they certify their new creations under identical licenses.

Enforcement
Project teams are responsible for adhering to Pact and funder open information guidelines. Risk Management may review open information reporting documentation during its routine Internal Control Reviews of Country Offices.