Publish What You Fund welcomes the IBP recommendations which follow the publication of the Open Budget Survey 2008. The results of the survey indicate that only 20 percent of governments provide adequate budgetary information, meaning that in 80 percent of countries citizens are hindered in their ability to hold their governments to account over spending activities. In response, the IBP recommends that donors help the poorest-performing countries (largely low-income and highly aid-dependent) to enhance their own transparency by increasing the amount of aid information available at both international and country level. Specifically, this information would help account for aid flows which often appear ‘off-budget’ as part of parallel systems created by donors in response to a perceived lack of recipient government capacity. Further, donors should aim to use ‘on-budget’ aid mechanisms in order to best meet the challenges of increasing aid transparency.

See the full IBP brief at: http://www.internationalbudget.org/resources/briefs/brief7.htm