The French Development Agency, Agence Française de Développement – AFD, is one of the agencies that signed up to be part of the 2026 Aid Transparency Index. As the final results are being calculated ahead of the launch on 4^th November, we spoke to Catherine Bareyre, Head of Accountability and AFD Group Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), about her views on transparency and experience of the Index accreditation process.

AFD’s support for the Index reflects its commitment to transparency, as Catherine explained:

“Transparency is a key commitment for AFD Group, reflected in both our strategic plan and our CSR strategy. The group’s transparency policy is just about to be updated – we’ve included new data regarding the measurement of our impacts and results, with the help of an impact data portal created by our Development Results and Impacts department. The issue is completely supported by our CEO and senior management, and the revision of our transparency policy has included every division in the group, including AFD’s subsidiaries PROPARCO and Expertise France.

So, transparency is really at the heart of our organisation.”

The global cuts in official development assistance (ODA) have been well documented, and France has also reduced its development budget. We asked Catherine if, in this context, AFD’s view of transparency has changed:

“Given the decline of the resources available, it is all the more important to have transparent and good quality data about the use of this money. So, the less ODA available, the more accountable we must be with the data relating to its use. Transparent data about projects and the use of the budget also helps us prioritise and create trust around how we work and what we do.”

AFD has been engaged since Publish What You Fund first discussed the re-launch of the Aid Transparency Index in May 2025. When its future was in doubt, the support of AFD was pivotal in driving plans forward. As Catherine explained, AFD has a number of reasons for supporting the Index:

“The first reason was that the Publish What You Fund Aid Transparency Index is currently the only existing independent rating on the quality of transparency. And we wanted to make a clear public commitment to transparency from our institution.

The Index is useful for us, in terms of reputation, recognition of our work, and for building trust in AFD and the quality of what we do.”

It’s fair to say that AFD was not satisfied with its score in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index. So why submit themselves to more public scrutiny?

“We had only a “Fair” score in the last Index in 2024 which has caused some questions, including from members of Parliament. So, we set ourselves the challenge of scoring in the “Good” category for this Index, this was our main goal.

Another of our goals is further external recognition of our transparency – for our stakeholders in general, but in particular the French taxpayer and our partners.

We want to be transparent about the way the public funds entrusted to us are used and the impact we are having, how we measure our results and the usefulness of AFD.

It’s very important for us to show, with the help of an external institution like Publish What You Fund, our commitment to transparency.”

For more than a decade, the Index has galvanised aid and development agencies to publish more information about their funding and activities. The launch of the Index helps to shine a light on transparency. Catherine agrees that the public comparison is a driver for change:

“Knowing that your agency will be ranked and compared to other leading aid and development agencies provides extra motivation to make changes.

When the exercise with the Publish What You Fund Index arrives in the AFD Group it mobilises everybody.

Knowing that this exists, and that we will be compared to others is a huge incentive to improve transparency, and to try to be as good as our partners and fellow institutions.”

And the Index process itself has supported AFD’s ambition to improve its transparency. Agencies participating in the accreditation process get detailed feedback on their publication practices before a final assessment, and the opportunity to join peer learning and training sessions. The process has not been without its challenges for AFD, but Catherine recognises how it has helped her team:

“Another reason for our participation in the Index was to make progress on the extent and quality of the data we are publishing.

The Index has helped us improve our transparency in general, because we have had very constructive and useful exchanges with the Publish What You Fund team. It has helped us improve our own data organisation procedures. The team at Publish What You Fund provided some real insights and explanations about the standards and the methodology of the Index. We also managed to benefit from peer sessions, which helped us better understand some concepts and technical aspects relating to the IATI standard. It’s still very complex, but we gained a lot from the exchanges with other agencies.”

The results of the 2026 Aid Transparency Index will be launched on 4^th November 2026. Register here to join the launch, which will feature Philippe Jahshan, Director of the Strategy, Foresight and Institutional Relationships Department at AFD.

You can find out how to sign up for the 2028 Aid Transparency Index in our information pack.