Humanitarian Exchange Language (HXL)

Assessment

• Open License Yes

• Transferable to Other Jurisdictions Yes

  Can be applied to any humanitarian spreadsheet data

• Stakeholder Participation Yes

  This standard is published by a working group that includes representatives from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, IOM, OCHA, Save the Children, UNHCR, UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank, and the World Food Program

• Consensus-Based Governance Yes

• Extensions Yes

  It is impossible for the working group to anticipate the needs of every sector, cluster, and organisation, so there is a well-defined mechanism for creating extension hashtags and attributes.

• Human Readable Yes

  Most aid data lives in spreadsheets, not databases or mobile apps.

• Machine Readable Yes

  HXL hashtags and attributes improve automation and interoperability for spreadsheet-style data.

• Requires Up-To-Date / Real-Time Data No

  HXL supports all types of data, including real-time reporting, information about the past, and forecasts for the future.

• Metadata Yes

  HXL encourages the addition of date, source, and similar metadata to each row, but because it is a retrofit standard (for use on top of existing spreadsheets and templates), it does not *require* that metadata.