A survey sponsored by the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management has reviewed the experiences of 35 national governments who are increasing the transparency of financial information to achieve more informed and efficient management of public sector resources.

While the report focuses on governments’ financial operations more generally, from a Publish What You Fund perspective this might have interesting implications for greater transparency in improving how donors deliver aid more effectively.

The survey contains reaffirming statements from experiences of transparency’s ‘surprising returns’, including citizens who are ‘more motivated to pay taxes [as] they can easily verify what government is doing with their money.’  Full and timely aid information allows governments not only to increase their accountability to the taxpayer, but also to track and evaluate current projects, and map their spending onto a recipient or donor budget. 

For more on the value of cross-budget mapping, read ‘Greater aid transparency: Crucial for aid effectiveness’