The first ever UK Aid Information Challenge took place last Saturday, 10th April in London at the Guardian newspaper. The aim was to see what would happen when aid data, aid practitioners, and some incredibly clever techies are brought together. Despite the sunshine outside, over 40 people joined us for 7 hours of enthusiastic "barcamping".

‘An Eye on Aid’, published today in American Prospect magazine by Justin Charity relays an conversation with Karin Christiansen which gets to the root of why Publish What You Fund exists.

On February 4 and 5, 2010, eleven organizations from around the world (see the list below) came together in snowy Washington D.C. to discuss “The Six Questions Campaign”. 

Karin Christiansen gives a comprehensive overview of the aims of the Publish What You Fund campaign, specifically focussing on the role that innovative technologies will have in facilitating aid transparency.

Publish What You Fund has sent its submission to the World Bank's Consultation on its Approach Paper on Disclosure. The brief submission, sent on Friday 5th June, welcomes the 'paradigm shift' which has seen a greater emphasis on the transparency of aid but makes a further case for aid transparency. Publish What You Fund responded to the World Bank's Disclosure Paper by encouraging the World Bank to join the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and to review its exemptions policy.

The full text of the submission can be viewed at:

ONE and Publish What You Fund today welcomed legislation that directs the Obama administration to develop and implement a national strategy to modernize US foreign assistance. This bill is an important opening move in a broader effort to make U.S. foreign assistance more strategic, effective, and transparent.

Interns Role:

• Managing the website
• Building / maintaining contacts database
• Drafting media materials, particularly website content
• Researching and drafting briefing notes
• Researching and producing regular updates for e-groups on aid transparency
• Organising meetings and trips
• Supporting the Director’s work as required

This blog by James Deane mentions Publish What You Fund as one of several growing accountability initiatives targeted at donors and other development actors. It discusses the challenges to such initiatives, such as lack of demand for information and the incomprehensible formats information is presented in.

On Wednesday 22nd April, Karin Christiansen and Marcus Roberts of Publish What You Fund took the floor at an MFAN advocacy meeting to discuss our new paper on aid transparency. The meeting was called to mobilise support for ChairmanSenator Howard Berman's (Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee) forthcoming introduction of stand-alone legislation that will include a call for a National Strategy for Global Development.

Our Director Karin Christiansen presented at the fourth annual Open Knowledge Foundation conference on the 28th of March. The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation promoting open knowledge, which they define as 'any kind of information – sonnets to statistics, genes to geodata – that can be freely used, reused, and redistributed'.

Click here to access Karin's presentation.