The 2025 DFI Transparency Index reveals broad-based improvements in transparency among development finance institutions (DFIs) over the last two years, but also highlights significant shortcomings, particularly in relation to impact, private capital mobilisation and climate finance.
Samantha Attridge and Gary Forster discuss the critical role of transparency in achieving development and climate finance goals, and preview this year’s DFI Transparency Index, highlighting where we’re looking for breakthroughs, and where stumbling blocks may remain.
As the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) takes shape, there is a concerning silence around aid transparency. At a time when transparency is more vital than ever – to ensure that scarce development finance is accountable, effective, and impactful -it appears to be falling off the agenda.
We are proud to launch Publish What You Fund’s 2025–2030 strategy—an ambitious roadmap to reinforce transparency as a pillar of effective, accountable development finance. This strategy builds on years of progress while responding to the new challenges of our time.
Publish What You Fund will not be running the Aid Transparency Index in 2026, and all future editions are in doubt unless further funding can be secured. The Index has provided an independent assessment and ranking of the transparency of the world’s largest aid agencies since 2012. It has had a significant impact on the quality and quantity of aid data that is published to the IATI Standard. Without it, there is great risk of an unchecked decline in aid transparency.
Our new report shows a troubling lack of transparency among philanthropic foundations that pledged to increase direct funding to local organisations. Despite commitments made in 2022 through the Donor Statement on Supporting Locally Led Development, the vast majority have failed to report targets or progress.
