Oxfam speaks out on aid transparency

The recent release of Oxfam America’s excellent report on aid effectiveness and transparency, highlights many of the issues that we here at aidinfo are working on.

It asks the question, “how would increased aid transparency improve aid effectiveness on the ground?”, gathering evidence from governments, CSOs, US aid agencies and contractors working on aid programmes in a number of countries.

Oxfam gathered detailed evidence on this issue, which forms the basis of their findings and subsequent recommendations. At aidinfo we recognise the importance of gathering first-hand information, and in particular the importance of consulting southern partners and those benefiting from aid.

Oxfam’s research confirmed that partner country governments often aren’t made aware of the aid they will receive, and this makes it difficult for them plan and manage those resources effectively. This lack of information also makes it hard for parliamentarians and citizens in these countries to hold their own governments to account for the use of these resources.

With this in mind, the report calls for:

“Countries to provide aid information that is transparent and predictable… easily accessible, timely, comparable and comprehensive.”

We fully support this recommendation; it lies at the very heart of what we are trying to achieve at aidinfo. Increased transparency about aid flows can help to strengthen accountability to citizens, deliver better public services and improve government/citizen relationships. The report considers what the US is doing in this area, and highlights the need for the following:

• Better information – to inform beneficiary countries what donors are planning so that they can plan, budget and inform citizens of these plans.
• Capacity building – using aid processes which utilise a country’s own system and resources and rely on more demand-driven aid.
• Increased control – allowing countries to lead aid, having a say in how aid is used in their wider development plans.

For example, the US could publish the detailed information on aid that is requested by recipients, such as where the money goes to and through which organisations it is channelled. This need is highlighted by the fact that, while the US reports which countries and which sectors aid goes to, it does not report which organisations implement aid-funded projects and activities in-country. This means that themoney can’t be traced from when it is released by the donor to when it reaches the ground.

Again, the need for traceability throughout the implementation chain is something we have emphasised in our own work, for example in our recent paper Show me the money. Something that really excites us is the report’s recommendation that the International Aid Transparency Initiative(IATI) be adhered to as a way of creating effective and meaningful reporting on aid data.

Oxfam acknowledges that although the US embraces the principles of IATI, with proposed US legislation stating “the President should fully engage with and participate in IATI”, it needs to do more.

Adopting the IATI standards would ensure that aid information published by the US would be comparable with that of other donor’s and thus maximise its usefulness to all stakeholders, especially those in partner countries. Those taking part in Oxfam’s research recommended that the US “participate in the definition of standards to ensure the IATI works for US assistance efforts”.

We are thrilled at Oxfam’s release of this report and welcome its findings and recommendations, many of which mirror our own. If donors pay attention to such calls for greater transparency and embrace the principles of IATI, as the report outlines, we believe that aid can be a lot more effective at reducing global poverty. After all, this is what it is supposed to do.