All donor agencies have three months left to uphold their Busan commitment to make aid transparent by the end of December 2015.

We believe this is an important period and a crucial year to show evidence that this 2011 promise was not only rhetoric but can actually lead to significant progress and make development more effective and sustainable.

As seen in previous years, and most recently in our 2015 mid-term aid transparency reviews, the work done by some donors in the implementation of the IATI standard has improved, contributing to making aid transparent, but a large number of organisations still need to work hard to meet the objectives they set for themselves in Busan. This is a key deadline for them to show that they can uphold their commitment and lead the aid transparency movement in future agendas including the SDGs recently agreed in New York.

To support and monitor them in these efforts, we are starting data collection for the 2016 Aid Transparency Index today. Data collection will last for a bit longer than three months, up to the 15 of January2016. In that period, we’ll engage closely with donor organisations and our independent reviewers in the process to make sure that data we collect is as accurate as possible and that our recommendations for improvement are taken on-board. Or at least heard.

The findings following this period of data collection will be key to measure progress made by donors and to inform decisions within the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. As part of this engagement, we need to make sure that transparency and open data remain an integral part of the discussions.

For more information about the Index methodology, donor selection and for the list of 46 donors being assessed this year, please visit the 2016 Aid Transparency Index webpage and download our FAQs and Technical paper.