Publish What You Fund is delighted to introduce its new CEO, Gary Forster. Gary joins the team at an exciting time, following the successful launch of the 2018 Aid Transparency Index in June under the excellent leadership of interim CEO Catherine Turner. The team is continuing conversations relating to the Index with donors and our advocacy partners around the world to ensure that the quality of data publication is maintained.

The organisation is also developing a new strategy, which will be launched in the autumn. A key aspect of our work over the last two-years has been to focus on analysing and improving transparency for specific issues and sectors. Our US Foreign Assistance project, for example, has used IATI data to assess the potential impact of the proposed cuts to US foreign assistance in four countries. The findings are being well received by Senators and Congress

Gary was CEO of Transaid from 2011 to 2017, having joined them as a volunteer in 2006. He brings experience in logistics and public health, in particular in sub-Saharan Africa. He says:

I am really excited to be joining Publish What You Fund at such a busy time. The organisation has made a big impact on the transparency of donors over the last decade. However, the landscape is very different to that of ten years ago, as the recent 2018 Index outlined. Development finance institutions play a much bigger role and humanitarian aid is also expanding. At the same time further energy is required to ensure that now we have greater transparency, we encourage and facilitate data-use to deliver a more meaningful impact. We also have a lot of work to do to ensure that transparency is implemented across the whole development spectrum to ensure governments, citizens and the media can all have access to the information they want and need.