ONE’s 2011 DATA Report published today has given its verdict on aid promises made by world leaders in 2005, and sets out what needs to be done to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. In putting the report together, ONE found that “a thorough analysis of progress was not possible due to a lack of available data” but that “there have been broad efforts to increase aid transparency and to create international standards for publishing data, and buy-in and agreement appear to be increasing in the run-up to the Fourth High Level Forum.” p.49 DATA Report 2011

The report states that “Accurate and timely reporting of ODA ?ows greatly improves aid effectiveness by allowing developing countries to better manage and plan for development resources; it also allows citizens to hold their governments accountable for how aid resources are allocated and spent. The extent to which ODA is accurately recorded in developing countries’ annual budgets is an important gauge of transparency and reporting.”

p.38 DATA Report 2011

Aid transparency is part of the ONE Campaign’s TRACK principles (“5 principles that make for a good promise”), outlined in the report:

“Every quanti?able commitment should come with – or be swiftly followed by – a clear presentation which shows how many years the commitment is for; a clear deadline; which budget line item the commitment is coming from; what the initial baseline is; and how the budget line item will change in future years. All this information needs to be comprehensive, comparable and timely, and to be available and accessible to the citizens of both recipient and donor countries. It should be accessible, ideally in machine-readable formats, on websites and in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) format standards.” P.22 DATA Report 2011