Friday, 5th March saw the UK launch of the “Untying Aid” report at a discussion hosted by Publish What You Fund and the Overseas Development Institute. The OCED commissioned report on ‘Untying Aid: Is it working?’ was chaired by Alison Evans, and included discussants of; Richard Manning; Karin Christiansen, Director of Publish What You Fund; Frans Lammersen, Chair of the OECD Development Co-ordination Directorate, and Ted Kliest from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A central conclusion and recommendation of the report is that greater transparency of procurement is fundamental to moving the untying agenda forward. The report by Edward Clay, Matthew Geddes, and Luisa Natali is the first independent evaluation of untying policies and practices undertaken by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in response to the 2001 OECD DAC recommendation to untie aid to the least developed countries.

For a recording of the meeting click here.

Here is a link to the full report. For the summary as presented to the DAC in January, click here.