On January 7, 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a pivotal speech on “Development on the 21st Century”. Secretary Clinton laid out six approaches the U.S. is taking to tackle development around the world. It is notable that a number of these require great aid transparency to be achieved. Particularly perhaps the stated need to holding agencies accountable in delivering meaningful results and the stress on the importance of agency coordination to avoid duplication and projects overlapping on the field. Without greater information on both inputs and outputs, and comprehensive, timely, comparable information neither of these can be achieved. The reiteration of President’s Obama model of development based on partnership, not patronage should also be lauded, but again, as Oxfam argues, genuine partnership needs to start with information sharing.

Secretary Clinton also noted the current State Department QDDR process and the White House led PSD process as two critical pieces that will help shape new ideas and approaches. The QDDR is expected to be completed in the summer of 2010.

For Secretary Clinton’s full speech, click here