Oxfam opens its books
We were thrilled to hear the latest on Francis Bacon’s open data requests, in which the transparency researcher contacted 8 large international development NGOs asking for spending details on projects for that financial year.
Bacon first contacted the aid agencies in 2008 asking for a breakdown of their project expenditure. Although several of the charities directed him to annual reports, none were able to provide him with the complete spending details he asked for.
He responded by submitting formal complaints to each of the organisations that were signatories to the INGO Accountability Charter. Oxfam responded to this, sending Bacon the details of every overseas project they funded in 2009 and 2010.
This accounted for data on 1017 projects, listing project numbers, titles, managing country/team and funds allocated. Projects with a spend of less than £1,000 were excluded. 15 activities were excluded where it was felt that the security of staff, partners or beneficiaries may be endangered. The list was generated from Oxfam’s project database. The data was provided in a pdf file, but is available in spreadsheet format here.
We really welcome this release of data, it’s immensely useful and a strong step forwards for the transparency movement; other NGOs should take note and follow suit.
