At Publish What You Fund it is exactly the processes of recipient-donor alignment and involvement which we advocate; precisely the factor illustrated to improve the developmental impact of aid in ‘Untying Aid: Is It Working?’
At present, only 66% of education-commited aid is reaching Pakistan’s education system. Reasons for this include, ‘meagre allocation of resources, little focus of multinationals on education, gaps in commitments and actual disbursements, strict aid conditionalities, and lack of implementation and transparency mechanisms.’
Bill Gates fears that money pledged by rich counties to developing nations will simply reduce aid put aside for other areas. The funding which has been agreed to help countries deal with climate change may come at a huge cost to other categories of foreign aid. Gates is particularly concerned that health will be hit hardest. He says, ‘If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases’.
International Development Agencies (IDA’s) including the European Union, the UK Department for International Development, and the World Bank will come together with Parliament, civil society, the media, and relevant stakeholders to keep them better informed about their plans and actions in the country. This is a brilliant step towards the manner of dialogue that Publish What You Fund is campaigning for. With conversation between donor agencies and the people of Guyana a two-way feedback can occur.
Due to a Supreme Court decision last week, more money than ever will be let into the US political system. However, the Court suggested an online transparency move in order that people may see who is buying and selling influence. This task has been taken up by the Sunshine Foundation, who aim to hire a policy expert to ensure political spending will become accessible to the public.
Every dollar will be matched by the Foundation. To go to the site, click here.
A brilliantly titled summary of the moves towards transparency made by the US, individual US states, and most recently the UK data.gov.uk site. Positive feelings towards a encouraging movement.
To read, click here.
