In a move aimed at improving how it registers its development cooperation activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed an application: IMPACT. This was successful in enabling budget holders to report activities more correctly: activities now have shorter names and are reported in English more often than previously. However, budget holders continue to use non-standard abbreviations.

Why this experiment was conducted: reports do not always comply with appropriate standards
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports on its activities to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), amongst others. In these reports, the Ministry sets out how much Official Development Assistance (ODA) the Netherlands provides. The reports do not always meet OECD standards, however. Many different Word forms are used, the names of activities are too long and they are often not worded in English. Moreover, the Ministry uses abbreviations that are not readily understood by an external audience. IGG, for example, is the name of a directorate within the Ministry.

Type of intervention: IMPACT application
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed an application − IMPACT − which staff can use, instead of the multitude of Word forms, to report on their activities. The application also has other benefits, including enhanced control of the activity cycle. This study focused on three interventions for registering activities to ensure that OECD requirements are met:
• length of activity names: the description field allows up to 150 characters
• the language: the entry fields in IMPACT are worded in English, so users are more likely to use English themselves
• abbreviations: IMPACT includes the warning 'must be readable for external stakeholders' to encourage users to use only standard abbreviations, such as UNICEF or WHO

Method used: comparison of registration with and without application
Every policy department and overseas post with its own budget for meeting policy objectives is a budget holder. From May 2022, participants in the pilot study (15 out of 120 budget holders) were able to register their activities using IMPACT. The impact of the application was tested by comparing activity names registered in the old way and using the new application. The analysis focused on effects that are readily quantifiable: length of names, chosen language and abbreviations. This does not necessarily mean that these are the main intended effects of IMPACT.

Result obtained: improved reports
In 2022, 20% of activity names under the old method were 150 characters or longer. This applies to both participants in the pilot study and non-participants. Using the new method, only 3% of activity names were too long. Using IMPACT, therefore, the descriptions are significantly more likely to be of the correct length. The character limit forces people to use shorter names. The reason that longer names still appear is because they are sometimes copied (or cut of half-way) from another file. Moreover, the descriptions are more often worded in English. 1% of the names pilot study participants gave to ODA activities in 2022 were in Dutch. This compares with 7% for the activities they entered using the old method − a statistically significant difference. This percentage is higher than amongst the non-participants in the pilot study (2% of the names they gave were in Dutch). This is probably because the pilot group includes a relatively large number of departments based in the Hague, and few overseas posts, where the working language is more likely not to be Dutch. The proportion of non-standard abbreviations in activity names is not lower following the introduction of IMPACT; in fact, it is significantly higher (62%), and was 37% amongst the pilot group using the old method. It is, however, substantially lower than for the non-pilot group (92%). The warning in IMPACT is inadequate in this regard, therefore. This might be because it used to be convenient to use a three-letter abbreviation common within the Ministry to filter by department or post. This is no longer necessary with IMPACT.

Impact: clearer and more transparent
Using the application, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports in English more frequently and using shorter texts. The use of non-standard abbreviations remains a focal point. Better naming leads to greater transparency about development cooperation results, for citizens, policymakers, partners and other donors.

Source: https://www.binnl.nl/home+-+en/knowledge/publications/bin+nl+publications/HandlerDownloadFiles.ashx?idnv=2719979