aidinfo's blog

Good news for IATI  today as The Hewlett Foundation became the second donor to publish to the IATI standard, releasing data on their global development and international population grantmaking.
 
The Foundation’s move to publish their data to IATI is part of a trend of foundations that have expressed interest and support for IATI. As we have reported previously, the Gates Foundation has said it will take steps to publish more detailed and timely data consistent with IATI standards. Meanwhile, the U.S.-based Foundation Center has recently become involved in IATI’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and is working on mapping its own reporting standard to the IATI standard, with funding from the Hewlett Foundation.
 
Like many other US foundations, Hewlett already provides significant data to the Foundation Center, so there is nothing new in the content of the data that is being released today. IATI’s added-value is that the data is now being published in an internationally agreed, open, common format. This will enable more organisations to access, compare and combine it with other data sources in a myriad of ways to meet individual needs. Read more »

We’re hoping for a major step forward on aid transparency today, as signatories and Steering Committee members of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) meet in Paris to agree the remaining items to be included in the IATI Standard. Read more »

The future of aid is changing.

Last week, at an event in Washington DC, USAID announced plans to publish details of their aid programmes in a form accessible to people in developing countries, as well as their own taxpayers. And on Friday, the EU Foreign Affairs Council agreed that member states would publish details of their aid in an internationally comparable format.

This is a big deal, and something that we in the aid transparency world have been hoping will happen for a long time; it is a huge step forward in the path towards more effective aid.

It means that from next year, donors making up at least two thirds of aid to less developed countries will be publishing detailed, up to date information about aid through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). The first part of this new global standard was agreed in July this year. The UK, which together with Sweden and the Netherlands has played a leading role in this initiative, will have its first data online next month.  Many other donors, including the World Bank and the EC, will soon follow. Read more »

Hivos and the Omidyar Network have announced the launch of the Africa Transparency and Technology Initiative (ATTI). Omidyar’s plan to support this initiative comes from their investment goals in the area of Government Transparency, with intentions to dedicate up to $2million to ATTI over the next two years. Hivos will oversee this investment, taking up a role to administer the money into ATTI on Omidyar’s behalf. 
 

The Omidyar Network invest in organisations providing technology and media platforms that enable citizens to participate in government processes, whilst also holding their governments to account. Over the last 2 years they have given over $23 million to firms, as part of their drive to further transparency in government. The idea behind ATTI is that, by supporting relevant technology-driven schemes, it will give citizens the tools to hold their governments to account. Read more »

 We’re proud to announce the launch of our new website. We hope that the clean new look and easy navigation will make it simple for you to find useful information on aid transparency. To break down the different areas we work in we’ve categorised the site into three main themes: 1) Policy, 2) Data and 3) Technology. In each section you can browse opinions, reports and news that relates to your interests. We’ve given each theme an icon and colour reference so you can easily identify content. Although the site looks different you’ll be able to find much of the same information as on our old site. We have created a library of all our reports and case studies to date, with a glossary of common terms to help you through the minefield of acronyms. We also updated our calendar to keep track of national and international meetings where aid transparency may play a part.  Read more »

 There is a striking juxtaposition of two news stories today. First we have the ‘news’ that some Western aid to Afghanistan has been diverted out of the country: "The massive cash flown out of Afghanistan includes some diverted Western aid, according to preliminary evidence gathered by Afghan and U.S. investigators. ... The raid also collected documents that link prominent Afghan businessmen and politicians, including relatives of President Hamid Karzai, in the movement of some USD3.65 billion flown out of the Asian nation annually. While some of the money came from legitimate businesses, some was sourced from diverted Western aid and logistics money, opium profits, and Taliban funds, according to U.S. and Afghan investigators. ... Read more »

In July, representatives from international donor agencies, development country Governments and civil society organisations met in Paris to talk data. As topics go, it might not be the most riveting, especially among a group of interlocutors more used to discussing life-and-death issues that affect the poorest parts of the world. But agreed standards of data could be the tiny key which unlocks a very large gate on the path to more efficient, more effective aid. Read more »