UK Archives - Publish What You Fund

UK aid faces a serious transparency challenge following announcement of DFID and FCO merger

By Sam Cavenett | Jun 24, 2020 | News

The 2020 Aid Transparency Index reveals an improvement in overall transparency among the world’s major aid agencies, but there remains a gulf in the performance of the two UK donors included in the ranking. Released today by Publish What You Fund, the Index is the only independent measure of aid transparency among the world’s major aid donors. The research, undertaken before last week’s announcement of a merger, shows that while DFID remained in the ‘very good’ category as a global leader in aid transparency, the FCO ranked 38th out of 47 donors and failed to publish adequate information on the performance of its aid projects. As the shrinking UK economy puts aid under increasing financial pressure and resources are redirected to respond to the COVID-19 emergency, the Index results provide a timely reminder that we need to know that our aid is being spent in the most effective way to achieve the greatest impact.

3 Out of 10 UK Government Departments Meeting 2020 Targets for Aid Transparency

By Sam Cavenett | Jan 15, 2020 | News

Only three out of ten government departments have reached the level of transparency set out in its 2015 UK Aid Strategy. Our detailed review assessed ten government departments spending significant amounts of official development assistance (ODA) and found that they all now share some data on their aid and many have improved the regularity and quantity of information they make available through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). However, currently only the Department for International Development (DFID), the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy meet the aid transparency targets the government is due to meet by 2020.

The New Oceans of UK Aid Information: What Does the Data Reveal?

By Elma Jenkins | Dec 19, 2019 | Blog

Throughout 2019 we have been conducting a transparency review of 10 UK government departments and two cross-government funds. As these departments have come to understand the details of our methodology, learn about the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard and invest in the systems and processes to enable greater transparency, there has been a steady increase in the number of departments providing data, and the comprehensiveness of this data. Consequently there is now a lot more information freely available on UK aid spending which until as recently as August was simply not available. In a new blog, Elma Jenkins reflects on the newly available data, what it tells us about UK aid spending and the many questions it raises.

News Roundup – UK Government Accountability, the Effectiveness of the Aid Transparency Index + News on the Grand Bargain, SDGs, Humanitarian Voices and Blockchain Technology

By Sam Cavenett | Jul 18, 2019 | News

Our latest review of blogs and reports, including a paper examining the effectiveness of the Aid Transparency Index, a new database of ‘humanitarian voices’, a focus on SDG 16 and the use of blockchain technology in service delivery

Tracking the New UK Aid Players with Data

By Elma Jenkins | Jul 16, 2019 | Blog

We recently attended the select committee hearing on how ODA is being managed in the UK. This was a timely event, given we are mid-way through our review of the aid transparency of all aid spending government departments in the UK. It led us to ponder “What does government accountability of international aid look like?”

Foreign Aid Allocation Without Aid Transparency

By Gary Forster and Guest | Jul 3, 2019 | Blog

Governments should allocate ODA budgets through the channels that will most effectively alleviate poverty and contribute to the SDGs. How do we know that development finance institutions (DFIs) are an appropriate vehicle for ODA spend? In the latest blog in our series on DFI transparency, Gary Forster teams up with CAFOD’s Dario Kenner to explore how governments and shareholders can be confident that DFI investments are delivering impact and value for money. Taking the example of the UK’s CDC Group, they ask If CDC’s portfolio is making a game-changing contribution to the SDGs.