About Project Browser

Project Browser is an interactive tool that allows you to search Global Affairs Canada’s international projects and download information as open data files. Project Browser is part of the Government of Canada’s continued commitment to Open Government and to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Created in 2004, Project Browser is offering ever-improving access to project information to increase transparency on aid spending. Since 2011, enhancements to the tool focus on aligning project data with the IATI standard.

Project Browser contains bilingual profiles of international projects funded by Global Affairs Canada and that are either in the process of being implemented (operational), have reached the end of implementing activities (terminating) or reached the end of all administrative activities (closed).

Project information is available in individual project profiles, displayed on a map, and for downloading in CSV and XML formats.

Project information refreshes daily and individual profiles may change between refreshes. Project Browser is not meant for official reporting, but to provide information on past and current international projects.

See the field definitions for information you can find in a project profile.

Keyword search function: Enter keywords of your choice and select Name/Description or project number in the Field to search. If any project profiles contain these exact keywords, a list of projects will be displayed.

Advanced filters function: Use the advanced filters to refine your search. The filters include lists of countries and regions, project status, start and end dates, aid type, contribution, sectors and sector categories, partner and partner classification. Keep in mind that the more search criteria you select, the shorter the project list you obtain.

Map function: Browse the map for projects by geographic location. Use the advanced filters to refine the list of projects displayed on the map (i.e. exclude closed projects from the list). Note that the geomapping of projects is a work in progress. While the intention is to display the project location as close to the activity site as possible, some projects are displayed on the country capital with a representational marker. Some projects are not displayed on the map for reasons such as: a global project scope (most projects implemented by multilateral organizations), the security of implementing partners or project beneficiaries, or incomplete coding.

Download function: Use the download buttons to obtain research-friendly data sets in csv or xml formats. These data sets are offered under an all-purpose licence. There are three ways of accessing project open data:

• download a full data set of all published projects by leaving the search criteria at nil (press Reset on the advanced filters, if needed)
• download a filtered data set of all published projects that qualify for your search criteria
• download the information of individual project profiles

Hint: Point your curser over the field labels to access infobites with short definitions.

Project number — Globally unique identifier for each project. It is made up of Global Affairs Canada's IATI Organisation Identifier (CA-3) and the Global Affairs Canada project number: the first seven digits of that number indicate a project, with the last three digits indicating a sub-project number. The Global Affairs Canada project numbers also appear in the data sent to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to report on disbursements.

Title — The project title as it appears in Project Browser may not be exactly the same as it appeared in announcements or in the Proactive Disclosure reports. In the case of multi-donor projects, the title represents Global Affairs Canada's contribution only and is often different from the title used by other donors.

Description — This usually describes the goal and activities of the project in plain language. If the project is part of a larger initiative, that initiative is usually described as well. Sometimes the description lists multiple partners; Global Affairs Canada's information system allows only one to be coded.

Expected results * — The information summarized represents outcomes that are expected to be achieved by the end of the project. Information is usually only available for projects approved after October 15, 2011.

Results Achieved * — The information summarized in this field represents highlights of the project's accomplishments. Unless otherwise stated, the results are cumulative and based on the most current reports available. Results are reported for the project as a whole, not just the Global Affairs Canada contribution. Results achieved by older projects may not be available. In addition, please note that many former development projects do not have results to report within the first two years of activities.

Status — Projects progress through a life cycle of tentative, planning, operational, terminating, and closed. Global Affairs Canada only publishes project data after the project has been approved and is in the implementation stage, or in operational status. Projects are usually moved into terminating status once implementing activities have been completed, and are changed to closed status once the final report has been accepted.

Start - end — The start and end dates are displayed in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD. The start date represents the date on which project activities begin. The end date represents the end of project activities by the partner.

Country / region — This field indicates where the project activities are carried out. The location may be a country, territory, or region. A project may be carried out in more than one location. If so, the project profile indicates an estimated percentage of project value allocated to each country.

Partner * — The partner or executing agency can be a private firm, a non-governmental organization, an educational institution, an association, an institute, a government department, or any other individual or organization selected to implement the project or one of its components.

The field displays the partner name followed by an alpha-numeric, or numeric globally unique organization identifier. For non-governmental organizations (e.g. civil society, private sector) based in Canada, the unique identifier consists of:

• country code (CA)
• governing body for the organisation's number (Canadian Revenue Agency, CRA_ARC)
• organisation's business number (123456789)

For multilateral organisations, the IATI Organisation Identifier is provided (i.e. 12345). At this time, Global Affairs Canada does not use the IATI Organisation Identifiers for all of its implementing agencies.

The partner name displayed in each project profile links to a partner profile, including a list of projects implemented by this partner.

Currently, only the lead partner can be entered in this field in Global Affairs Canada’s information system. If there are multiple partners executing the project, they are usually listed in the description. Consequently, if you use the partner filter to perform a search or generate a data set, the resulting list will only contain those projects where the vendor is identified as the primary partner.

Sector — Specific area(s) of the recipient's economic or social development that the project intends to foster (also known as the purpose codes). The sector labels and codes used are tertiary-level OECD-DAC sector codes. Global Affairs Canada's sector coding table for projects is based on the OECD-DAC sector code table, allowing all donors to compare and coordinate their projects.

Policy marker * — Indicators tracking key policy issues. At this time, only OECD-DAC policy markers are published.

Contribution — The value indicated in Canadian dollars corresponds to the maximum amount approved by Global Affairs Canada for the project. When the project moves to closed status, the final amount of the contribution is posted. This value could be less than the maximum amount initially approved.

• Note 1: The amount indicated does not automatically correspond to the amount in the contractual agreement with the lead implementing organization, because multiple agreements may have been signed for a single project or the amount approved may include monitoring and evaluation components.
• Note 2: The amounts listed in Project Browser and in the OECD-DAC data for any given year will usually be different. The contribution amount published in Project Browser reflects a planned, or partially disbursed, multi-year budget in Canadian dollars, as currently entered in Global Affairs Canada's information system. The amount reported to the OECD-DAC is expressed in US dollars on a calendar year basis, and includes contributions from other Canadian sources.
• Note 3: The amounts published in Project Browser may not always match amounts publicly announced. In some cases, the budget data may appear to indicate a lesser amount than that announced because the project has been split into sub-projects, the profiles of which have yet to be published. In other cases, the data may appear to indicate an amount greater than that announced because the announcement refers only to new funding added to an existing project.

Related information * — This section contains various links to project-related information, such as related projects in Project Browser, or partner’s websites.

• Partner website: In most cases, a link to the partner’s website is available. Most implementing partners provide information on individual activities on their website, including reports. In some cases, the website might be available in English or French only, or in the language of the implementing partner's country.

Lead department — The government entity that finances the activity within its own budget. The former CIDA was the lead department for projects approved before June 26, 2013. For all projects with a start date of June 26, 2013 or later, Global Affairs Canada is the lead department.

Responsibility centre / program — Identifies which part of Global Affairs Canada's organization is responsible for managing the project.

Type of finance — Identifies the financial instrument used for the project, e.g. grant, loan, etc. Corresponds to the OECD-DAC field.

Collaboration Type — Information on the character of the resource flows/disbursements, e.g. bilateral or multilateral. Corresponds to OECD-DAC field.

Type of Aid — Identifies the type of assistance provided in the project, e.g. budget support, sector budget support, core support, project support, etc. Corresponds to OECD-DAC field.

Financial information by fiscal year — The table displays the originally planned budget for the project, planned disbursement, and transactions in Canadian Dollars, with the dates on which the transactions were registered.

Flow Type * — Identifies the type of flow of the project, e.g. official development assistance, other official flows, private flows, etc. Corresponds to OECD-DAC field.

Tied/Untied * — Amount of the project that is tied, untied, or partially untied aid in Canadian dollars, according to OECD-DAC definitions:

• Untied Aid-grants and contributions which are freely and fully available to finance procurement from substantially all aid recipient countries and from OECD countries (including Canada). Funds provided to finance the recipient's local costs are also defined as untied.
• Tied Aid-grants and contributions which are either tied to procurement of goods and services from the donor country or which are subject to procurement modalities implying limited geographic procurement eligibility other than those described under partially untied aid.
• Partially Untied Aid-grants and contributions which are in effect tied to procurement of goods and services from the donor country and from a restricted number of countries which must include substantially all aid recipient countries.

Note: Some project profiles don’t include fields identified by a star (*).