A common, open standard for publishing development aid information has been agreed by the OECD Working Party on Aid Effectiveness which met June 28-29 in Paris, according to a press release from Publish What You Fund.
United Kingdom Development Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell will co-chair the new Global Partnership, is quoted as saying, “The commitment to transparency in Busan was very clear – both by the donors but also by other actors. Impressive progress already made, and I congratulate you on yesterday endorsing a common, open standard.” He was referring to an agreement reached in Busan, South Korea, earlier this year.
He added that that he will use the co-chair position “to ensure we keep making progress on our transparency commitments” and stressed the need for implementation.
Publish What You Fund Director David Hall-Matthews said, “We are delighted the common, open standard has been agreed by all development actors. This will help uniformly record aid spending across many different donors, making it possible to trace funding from source to results on the ground.”
“Now the focus must be on implementing this standard. As a first step, donors are now committed to publishing their implementation schedules for the standard by the end of the year,” according to Hall-Mathews.
The a Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation agreement established “a framework for development cooperation that embraces traditional donors, South-South cooperators, the BRICs, CSOs and private funders.”
The Busan Partnership document called on the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness to reach an agreement on the working arrangements for a Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.
One specific goal was to conclude by June “a relevant set of indicators and targets through which they will monitor progress on a rolling basis, supporting international and regional accountability for the implementation of their commitments.”
Filed under: IFTI Watch