Berman referred to the bill as “a down payment on foreign aid reform” that would serve as a “forcing mechanism” to get the administration thinking about long-term policy and not just immediate crises. “ There are three parts to the bill: an overarching strategy, monitoring and evaluation and, as we are very pleased to note, aid transparency.

The bill will be followed later in the year by an “enormous rewrite” of the Foreign Assistance Act, which has been altered numerous times since it was first introduced in 1961.

When testifying before the U.S. Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Senator Howard Berman, last Wednesday, Clinton commented in relation to U.S. aid to Africa that she "didn’t know where a lot of it ends up." Also, she said, "we waste way too much money on contractors." She stated that half of the money spent on foreign aid "doesn’t even end up …

Interns Role:

• Managing the website
• Building / maintaining contacts database
• Drafting media materials, particularly website content
• Researching and drafting briefing notes
• Researching and producing regular updates for e-groups on aid transparency
• Organising meetings and trips
• Supporting the Director’s work as required

This blog by James Deane mentions Publish What You Fund as one of several growing accountability initiatives targeted at donors and other development actors. It discusses the challenges to such initiatives, such as lack of demand for information and the incomprehensible formats information is presented in.

This third edition of ‘OECD Regions at a Glance’ gives the latest comparable data and trends on competitiveness and performance across OECD regions, providing information at the sub-national level, alon with graphs and maps. This edition has a special focus on the spatial dimension for innovation. It is based on the OECD Regional database, the most comprehensive set of comparable statistics on demography, economic and labour market performance, education, healthcare, environmental outputs and knowledge-based activities at the sub-national level.

In a post on transparency 2.0, Nick Troiano at SocialGovernment.com reflects on a discussion featured by the National Conference on Citizenship, entitled “In Transparency, We Trust?" Nick states that participation is key to this concept. He argues that “a window between the people and their government” is no longer enough.