Canadian NGO calls for more transparent aid

A Canadian NGO has been creating a media storm in calling for their government to make their aid contributions more transparent. Engineers Without Borders, which stopped by Parliament Hill in the country’s capital of Ottowa, is calling for their government to sign the transparency initiative – the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Representatives from the pro-active NGO met with MPs and held a press conference to highlight the issue that more transparent aid is needed. James Haga, Director of Advocacy for EWBs said of the initiative:

Citizens of developing countries of course are entitled to know how their aid is being spent in their country, something that is of great importance and is sorely lacking right now.

In describing the current aid system as a “massive bureaucratic headache”, Haga went on to say:

Putting in place a common standard will help reduce that redundancy, bureaucracy, help save people time and valuable resources to do their jobs much more effectively

With annual savings of around $7million, the costs for the Canadian government to implement the initiative would be somewhere between $50,000 to $500,000.

Several MPs attended the press conference, with Conservative MP Dean Allison stating that:

CIDA participated in the IATI discussions as an observer and closely monitors the progress of the IATI as it continues to evolve

Allison went on to say that while the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) isn’t yet ready to join the initiative, that the Canadian government shares the same ethos towards transparency as IATI.

EWBs have been working hard to highlight the issue of aid transparency, having had great success in increasing general awareness of IATI in several of their campaigns.