London – Publish What You Fund yesterday welcomed the announcement of a new “Aid Transparency Guarantee” by the UK Government. The Guarantee promises that “aid information will be made fully transparent to citizens in both the UK and recipient countries”. Implementing these standards in the UK and advocating for other donors to adopt the same will result in a significant increase in aid effectiveness.
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has instructed all Government departments to act on the coalition’s promise of increased transparency in Government data. The Prime Minister’s May 31st letter stated:
The U.S. National Security Strategy was released yesterday by the White House. The document demonstrates an awareness of the need for transparency both domestically and in foreign assistance.
The OECD reports that the Ghanaian government plans a ‘Better Ghana’ achieved through greater aid effectiveness; ‘There is a strong need to ensure that aid is managed effectively in line with Paris Declaration commitments.’
An interesting contribution to the AidWatch blog by Till Bruckner, ‘Secret NGO Budgets: Publish what you spend’ highlights a lack of aid transparency of American NGOs in Georgia which runs even deeper than a lack of proactive disclosure.
Yesterday, 25th May, saw the launch of the ONE campaign’s Data Report 2010, in which aid transparency emerged as a central theme. ‘Monitoring the G8 promise to Africa’, the report summarizes countries’ promises of development assistance and progress towards fulfilling these pledges in the last year.
