Looking for background information about the trends toward more transparency I found the Aidinfo site. They are funded by the Hewlett and Gates foundations.
What is it?
aidinfo is an initiative to accelerate poverty reduction by making aid more transparent.
We think that aid will work better - and that poverty will be reduced more quickly - when governments, civil society and people in both industrialised and developing countries can access information about aid quickly, easily and cheaply. In short, we think that better aid will result from better information.
People in poor countries could make aid work better for them if they could see how much was coming, where it was being spent and on what terms. Increased access to better information would mean that they could hold donors and governments to account for the services delivered.
Governments in developing countries could plan joined-up services - and therefore increase the effectiveness of the resources available for poverty reduction - if they had detailed, timely and predictable information that enabled them to see how much aid was coming into the country – and, crucially, how much was likely to come in to the country.
People in industrialised countries might be tempted to increase their commitment to aid and poverty eradication if they could see exactly how their money was being spent, trace exactly where it was going and see what sort of difference it was making.
Researchers, journalists, parliamentarians and advocacy organisations could check that resources were focused on the areas in greatest need and that governments and donors were meeting timetabled commitments if they had access to up-to-date, reliable information on aid.
Donors, governments, civil society organisations, NGOs and private companies could increase the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of aid on poverty if they could easily share future project and programme funding plans.
How might an aidinfo standard lead to timely, transparent, comprehensive and accessible aid information?
If donors provide underlying aid information in a timely, well-organised and easy-to-access way, so reducing the barriers to using the information, then a rich variety of applications could be created by the public sector, private sector and civil society organisations. These applications would help everyone find out the information they require quickly, easily and cheaply.
What's aidinfo actually doing?
We are building an evidence-based case for greater aid transparency.
We are researching the needs of current and potential future users of aid information to find out what information they have access to, what information they need, how they would use it, and what difference it would make.
We are researching the options for donors. What information do they gather? What would be involved in adapting their systems to make that information more accessible?
We are working with the academic and policy community to establish the evidence base on the potential benefits of aid transparency.
What are the core components of aidinfo?
There are four key components to the aidinfo programme. Firstly we need to understand the demand for data, especially from a southern user perspective, and gain greater clarity on how people access information, what prevents them gathering information and what the data is used for. Secondly we need to understand the supply of data from donors such as reporting processes, procedures and data formatting. Thirdly we need to understand current and new technologies for aid data management and assess the complexities in adapting current aid systems to one that makes information more accessible. Finally we need to understand and engage politically in the context of aid transparency through advocacy work with a variety of stakeholders.
Who's behind aidinfo?
The aidinfo programme is currently led by a team based in the UK and Addis offices of Development Initiatives. The team includes Owen Barder, Judith Randel, Tony German, Carolyn Culey, Victoria Room,Rob Tew, Simon Parrish, Kerry Smith and Lisa Walmsley (for more info go to devinit.org/people).
aidinfo is also part of a wider consortium of partners which includes Brigham Young University (BYU), theCollege of William and Mary and the Henry L. Stimson Center. Each organisation within the consortium is working on a specific stream of work but all are committed to reducing poverty and improving aid transparency.
BYU and the College of William and Mary are developing the Project Level Aid (PLAID) database which contains thousands of development projects financed by bilateral and multilateral donors from 1970-2000. PLAID is currently developing a modification of the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) sector codes which allows for the classification of projects with multiple purposes and more detailed descriptions of projects.
The Henry L. Stimson Center is carrying out work to improve financial transparency among development assistance agencies for the purposes of improving aid effectiveness through enhanced coordination. The project involves a scoping exercise and will experiment with new approaches to track development finance flows. The project aims to identify alternative IT approaches so as to provide real-time financial data on a shared basis among a subset of development assistance agencies. The outcome should improve coordination, policy formulation and programming effectiveness.
What is aidinfo's involvement in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) process?
In September 2008 at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, Accra the Department for International Development (DFID) launched IATI. IATI aims to promote greater transparency and to deliver a step shift in global public availability and access to information on aid flows. Since its launch, aidinfo has been actively involved in the IATI process and is co-hosting the secretariat alongside DFID and the UNDP. IATI is currently in the process of setting up a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee and Technical Advisory Group and aidinfo has been commissioned to draft a scoping paper and research current standard setting processes.
If you can help us build our evidence-based case for transparency in aid information, we would like to hear from you. For example, if you currently use aid information, or would like to but are unable to access it, we could document this. Or if you work in a donor agency and have ideas for how aid information could be more accessible, we would like to hear from you.
We'd particularly welcome your views on the following report, which aims to summarise the evidence that we have gathered so far for greater transparency in aid. Better information, better aid: draft consultation paper.
We'd welcome suggestions, additions, comments and corrections via our forum or by email. Alternatively, you can fill in the online contact form or call us: +44 (0)1749 671343. Thank you!
Where does aidinfo get its funding from?
Aidinfo is one of several programmes with overall strategic direction from Tony German and Judith Randel, directors of Development Initiatives. Development Initiatives has two parts, DI International Ltd (DII) and Development Initiatives Poverty Research Ltd (DIPR). DI is a consultancy which has worked on aid and poverty issues since 1993 and DIPR is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee established in 2008. Its objectives are to undertake research, education, advisory and operational activities which are designed to increase access to and understanding of statistical and other information relating to poverty, development cooperation, human rights, humanitarian and development assistance; to increase awareness of the factors which cause and perpetuate poverty.
In early 2007 DIPR received grant based funding for its aidinfo programme from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In November 2007 the Hewlett Foundation authorised DIPR a grant of $1,200,000 over two years (in two instalments) for a project “to improve access to high quality, timely information on aid flows”. In the agreement DIPR will provide annual narrative and financial expenditure reports by 30th June 2009. During the same time period the Gates Foundation authorised a grant for just under $1,800,000 for aidinfo.
aidinfo is currently building its evidence base to support these four components which will highlight the potential benefits of aid transparency. In order to build its evidence base aidinfo has a number of work streams:
Use cases: aidinfo is analysing financial flows to recipient countries (Malawi, Mozambique and Rwanda) and comparing the data to official aid flows in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) reporting system. In addition aidinfo has hosted a number of aid information workshops in London, Washington, Kampala and The Hague to understand the needs of data users and train participants on what aid data is publically available
Stakeholder mapping: aidinfo is carrying out a number of stakeholder mapping studies aimed at identifying bilateral and multilateral agencies that support aid transparency initiatives
Analysis of existing tracking initiatives and their data: aidinfo is carrying out detailed research on current aid tracking initiatives which involves analysing in-country data systems such as AMPs (Aid Management Platforms) and DADs (Development Aid Databases)
Application of technology: aidinfo plans to identify new and emerging technologies that could improve current data exchange systems
Political engagement: aidinfo is contributing to the IATI process in which donors and agencies sign up to improving aid transparency for poverty reduction purposes
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