George Ingram, Co-Chairman of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network today writes for the Huffington Post, calling for U.S. President Obama to lead on aid reform in his article ‘Aid Reform Within Reach: Time for the President to Lead’.

Whilst commending the U.S.’s approach to foreign assistance, Ingram states his apprehension: “To put it bluntly, the United States is falling short in getting the most bang for its development buck […] Progress on actual nuts and bolts of turning policy into action has been less forthcoming”.

Ingram notably highlights that “multiple agencies carrying out similar or inconsistent programs is not good practice; that assistance programs need greater transparency and accountability”.

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is developing a global standard for aid transparency to address the current lack of coordination, transparency and accountability which is resulting in ineffective aid. We hope that the U.S. will adopt IATI standards and realise the potential of their foreign assistance.