Spread the word
Isn't the need for aid transparency obvious? How come this issue is still not very high on the agenda of advocacy groups and aid experts across Europe? One reason certainly is, that people did not think about it too much and that those initiatives that try to improve aid transparency are not well known, even in the so called aid community.
To spread the word about aid transparency, OpenAid is co-organising three aid transparency events in the next ten days. Together with ONE France there will be small event with high level decision makers in Paris on the 27th of September to talk about aid transparency, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and the general position of the French government in the upcoming OECD High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea. France is not a member of IATI, but the French government is pushing strongly for more public open data. Etalab, an institution reporting directly to the French Prime Minister is charged with encouraging the publication of public sector information in all French ministries.
On the 28th and 29th of September OpenAid, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Open Knowledge Foundation and Transparency International Germany are organising the Open Aid Data Conference. Despite other events on aid effectiveness in Berlin around the same date, the interest in this conference has been overwhelming and we are looking forward to a very exciting programme. Particularly the hackday on the 28th with be an absolute novum in the German aid community. Staff of aid agencies, of NGOs, journalists and consultants will be able to meet "real hackers" and get a first hand impression of how open data can improve processes in development cooperation. Other highlights of the event will be a presentation of the Open Data Initiative of the World Bank by Prasanna Lal Das and the key note by Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International and of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Finally, on the 4th of October, OpenAid, the Czech NGO network FORS and the Czech aid agency People in need are organising the V$ aid transparency event in Prague. This event is targeting government decision makers and NGOs in the Visigrad countries (Poland, Hungary, the Czech republic and Slovakia - V4) with a strong focus on IATI. Like in Paris and in Berlin we do not only want to highlight the relevance of aid transparency, but also demonstrate that aid transparency is but one aspect of the broader trend for open data in government. Speakers at this event will be amongst others Owen Barder, who will explain to us the why and the what of IATI. For those who are not able to be present, you can see his presentation at the recent Power of Information Conference in London. We are also very excited to have Ton Zijlstra in Prague, who is the community steward of the project of the European Commission on public sector information and who will give an overview of what is happening in terms of open government level in Europe. Another highlight in Prague will be a presentation by Tamuna Karosanidze from Georgia who will illustrate the value of public aid data and describe the civil society aid monitoring project initiated by Transparency International, the Open Society Foundation and other NGOs in Georgia,
