ONE talk about transparent aid

It’s really encouraging to see that a large and influential organisation, like ONE, is emphasising the importance of transparency in achieving meaningful and sustainable development. In fact, they stand by the benefits of transparency to such an extent that it constitutes a “core principle for ONE’s advocacy work”.

This blog post from Dr. Sipho Moyo, ONE’s Africa director, draws a link between transparency in development practice and better service delivery (see our comments on Svensson’s work for further details on this subject), management of natural resources and more efficient infrastructure.

ONE advocate, and we agree, that a major benefit that comes with transparent aid is that it allows citizens to hold aid agencies, governments and donors to account for aid promised and delivered. This in turn reduces corruption and allows effective feedback on aid projects from aid recipients, which subsequently makes aid more effective… this improves, and saves, lives.

This core principle in ONE’s advocacy work illustrates their commitment towards transparency and more effective aid. This is something that we wholeheartedly support at aidinfo and, having worked towards achieving greater aid transparency in the global system for some time now, we are thrilled that they have given it a centre stage.