US announce their commitment to aid transparency initiative

Fantastic news from HLF4 in Busan this morning, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing that the US has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Following similar announcements by Canadian CIDA, CDC  and the Inter-American Development Bank in Busan yesterday, this brings the total number of IATI signatories to 26.

The US is the world’s largest bilateral donor with annual aid commitments of $30bn. With Canada and the US on board, IATI signatories now account for 75% of global Official Development Assistance (ODA).

This latest news, combined with the fact that thirteen signatories and six further organisations have begun publishing their aid information to the IATI Registry, demonstrates that IATI is gaining momentum.

The US has been engaged in the IATI process from the outset as an observer, and has already taken a number of steps to increase the transparency of its aid information such as the launch of the US Foreign Assistance Dashboard.

Publication to IATI’s common, open standard will make this information much easier to find, use and compare. This in turn will help donors and developing country governments to plan and manage precious aid resources more effectively, and maximise the impact of aid in reducing poverty. And it will help parliaments, civil society organisations and citizens in both aid-giving and aid-receiving countries to hold their governments to account for aid spending.

We urge all remaining donors to join IATI as a crucial step towards increasing the effectiveness of their aid.