24 SEPTEMBER 2008
Donor Transparency Goal of New International Effort;
Commitments in Accra Agenda on Aid Called Too Weak

An international effort to encourage transparency about development aid was launched in Accra, Ghana, on Sept. 4.

The announcement of the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) came on the fringes of a major international conference on aid effectiveness. The resulting "Accra Agenda" supports more transparency, but was short on specifics in the eyes of some activists.

The more concrete development was the IATI, which is to be a database that will increase the availability of information about aid flows. This is intended to allow increased scrutiny of aid and help recipients and donors coordinate and plan more effectively.

Unveiled at the "High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness" in Accra, the IATI was pushed by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with support from the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the European Commission and the Hewlett Foundation.

A press release from the UK indicates that donors should agree to provide "full and detailed information on all aid in each country affected, details and costs of individual projects and their aims, and reliable infornation on future aid."       

Britain's international development secretary, Douglas Alexander said: "We see this as an important first step to increase certainty for both donors and the countries receiving aid. The impact of aid in relieving poverty can be greatly increased if everyone can see where the money's coming from, who is spending it and what it should be achieving." He said that only half of the financial assistance provided shows up in the budgets of developing nations, and called the new intitiave a tool against the misuse of aid.

Data on the scope of aid was included in a speech by World Bank President Robert Zoellick:

On average, there are now some 33 donors for each country.  In 2007, these donors conducted an astonishing 14,000 missions to 54 countries, and only 18 percent of those were done with another donor.  The average country hosts 260 donors a year.  Vietnam had 752 in 2007.  Tanzania had 407, and that was only because Tanzania has imposed some quiet periods to allow its ministers to work and not lead missions.  Cambodia had 22 different donors in the health sector alone, with 109 separate projects.  And as we had more donors, we had more transactions of smaller sizes.   So, in 2006, there were more than 70,000 aid transactions, the average project size was $1.7 million.

Zoellick said that "the possibilities to expand transparency and boost effective development are just starting to be tapped." According to the president, "Whether it's a question of posting budgets for schools on the door, or whether it's a question of working with extractive industries, the potential gains are very great."

He continued: "One important idea is for donors and recipients to report their funding in ways that eases tracking and accountability.  In this context, I think the UK's International Aid Trade Transparency Initiative is highly timely and very useful." He also supported channeling more aid through national budgets.

Accra Agenda Transparency Langauge Called Unspecific

The IATA announcement came as 1,200 delegates from 120 countries met Sept. 2-4 to complete the "Accra Agenda for Action on Aid Effectiveness."

Many civil society organisations dubbed the communiqué an "agenda for inaction." Among other things, the groups wanted stronger language on transparency and more comprehensive disclosure of information.

Without specifying how it will be achieved, donor governments committed to publish "regular, detailed, and timely" information on aid spending. They also committed to open procurement of services, as well as to providing "full and timely information" on current and planned aid spending, up to five years in advance.

The specific language says: "We will make aid more transparent. Developing countries will facilitate parliamentary oversight by implementing greater transparency in public financial management, including public disclosure of revenues, budgets, expenditures, procurement and audits. Donors will publicly disclose regular, detailed and timely information on volume, allocation and, when available, results of development expenditure to enable more accurate budget, accounting and audit by developing countries."

Transparency International (TI) voiced its disappointment Sept. 5, indicating in a press release that "the meeting concluded with few firm, time-bound commitments on fighting corruption, jeopardizing the global campaign to end poverty."  

TI wrote: "Despite stated support by many attendees for aid transparency and accountability, the Forum’s communiqué, the Accra Action Agenda, ultimately fell short on specific timelines and concrete commitments to increase accountability and transparency in the development process. The lack of progress threatens to undermine aid as an effective tool for supplying medicines to clinics, building schools and attacking the roots of extreme poverty, which plagues more than 1.4 billion people around the world."
 
Publish What You Fund Campaign Begins
 
Separately, a group of civil society organizations – including ONE (formerly DATA) and ActionAid – on Sept. 5 launched the Publish What You Fund Campaign, which lays out principles for greater transparency in the delivery and funding of aid.
 
The Publish What You Fund Campaign calls on donor governments to act immediately on commitments to greater transparency of aid made in the Accra Agenda, which the press release called "insufficient" but "nevertheless represent a step in the right direction."

The campaign asked donor governments to fulfill their transparency commitments without delay.

"The commitments in the Accra Agenda for Action reflect growing recognition that greater transparency is central to aid delivering on its promise – to empower people in the fight against poverty," said Martin Tisné, Programme Director at Tiri (London), one of the founders of the Publish What You Fund Campaign. "Lack of transparency is detrimental to democratic engagement and accountability and risks undercutting aid effectiveness."
 
The Publish What You Fund Campaign sponsors also welcomed the launch of the International Aid Transparency Initiative to improve information about aid. The IATI responds to calls from civil society by establishing a process to deliver "full and detailed information on all aid" and "details and costs of individual projects".
 
"The IATI has the potential to make real the Accra commitments to transparency," said Helen Darbishire, Director of Access Info (Madrid) and a founder of the Publish What You Fund Campaign. "Donors have for years talked about transparency underpinning aid effectiveness, but have failed to deliver. We expect IATI to help change that by setting specific benchmarks for timely, accessible, and detailed information about aid."
 
"We will be watching donors," added Karin Christiansen, Policy Manager for ONE and a founder of the campaign. "The IATI is the vehicle for making the aid transparency commitments of the Accra Agenda for Action real. We expect donors to sign up to IATI and for it to deliver on the Publish What You Fund principles."
 
Transparency means more than just disclosure – it also entails proactive communication with people in recipient countries. "Donors must ensure that IATI promotes accessible aid information in plain and readily comprehensible language and formats," concluded Tisné. 
 
The Publish What You Fund Campaign brings together groups working on aid, good governance and the right to access information to define how greater transparency of aid can be achieved. Publish What You Fund will monitor compliance with the transparency commitments in the Accra Agenda for Action and will participate in the IATI process.

The four principles of Publish What You Fund are:

1. Information on aid should be published proactively
2. Everyone has the right to request and receive information about aid
3. Information on aid should be timely, accessible and comparable
4. The right of access to information about aid should be actively promoted

www.publishwhatyoufund.org

By Toby McIntosh

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