Transparency and accountability take centre stage at DCF in New York

The 2010 Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) opens today in New York, with accountable and transparent development cooperation as one of its key themes. The Secretary General’s Report to the DCF makes the case for information provided by global transparency initiatives to be:

• Broader – to include projected disbursements, current indications and pledges, funding gaps for programmes and projects and to clearly distinguish off-budget and off-plan aid. This will make it useful for programme countries and providers to plan and budget.It should also include information on agreed aid effectiveness targets, results, and gender orientation, allowing users to track targets.To allow more in-depth analysis by stakeholders, there needs to be broader coverage of information from Non-DAC donors, CSOs and foundations, with comprehensive documentation on loans and grant agreements, conditions and procurement details.
• More timely and aligned, and from more sources – implying a call for real-time information, with providers updating disbursement transactions immediately. This will make it possible to track aid from provider to ultimate beneficiary, allowing input from grassroots stakeholders who can track aid spending and results.
• More accessible and systematically disseminated data – the top priority is for stakeholders in programme countries to be able to use this information to promote accountability.

The report notes that the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) aims to address many of the problems above but says that:

“its progress has been slow and it needs to cover a greater proportion of global development cooperation flows”.

Next week, IATI signatories and Steering Committee members meet in Paris. They must respond to this challenge when agreeing details of what will be published in the first phase of IATI.

It is clear from the IATI pilots (see draft version of IATI Country Pilots Report) that phase 1 of IATI will deliver some important benefits to programme countries, including:

• More timely information – data will be available sooner, with monthly updates. Some donors will report quarterly in the first instance.
• More detailed information, covering most – but not all – of the data required by aid management systems.
• Publication of this information in an open, standard format that will make it accessible to a wider range of stakeholders in partner countries, reducing the transaction costs of collecting and reporting information.

At the same time, the papers presented for the meeting on 7th July emphasise that many of the identified priorities for programme countries still need to be fully defined, and will not be addressed until phases 2 and 3 of IATI. These include:

• Proposals on budget alignment, ensuring that IATI publishes data in a format that is compatible with national budget definitions;
• Detailed geographic information, identifying the precise location of aid projects;
• Detailed information on future aid flows;
• Publication of all conditions attached to aid agreements.

Since the latter two categories represent Accra commitments, we believe it is essential that these items are fully defined and implemented prior to the next High Level Forum in Seoul in 2011. This will ensure that IATI delivers on its original vision and promise, providing aid information that programme countries so clearly need.