5 July 2018
Index, Portal Provide Insights on Aid Transparency
story highlights

The 2018 Aid Transparency Index ranks donors based on their organizational planning and commitments; finance and budgets; project attributes; joining up development data; and performance.

The Asian Development Bank and UN Development Programme rank highest, being the only two institutions publish on all indicators in the International Aid Transparency Initiative Standard.

Two accompanying briefs summarize findings for five US organizations and 19 European organizations.

20 June 2018: Publish What You Fund and The Brookings Institution launched the sixth Aid Transparency Index, assessing 45 of the world’s largest donors. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) launched a Transparency Portal, providing access to information on the Programme’s work by country, thematic issue, and contribution to the SDGs.

The Aid Transparency Index ranks a range of multilateral and country development finance institutions (DFIs), UN agencies and foundations. To be included in the Index, donors must meet three of four criteria: majority public ownership; the primary purpose being aid or development finance; budget of US$1 billion per year; and playing a leading role in setting aid/development policy in the entity’s home country. The Index scores donors in five categories: organizational planning and commitments; finance and budgets; project attributes; joining up development data; and performance.

The launch of the 2018 Index, held on 20 June 2018, at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, US, highlighted that development actors today operate in a more complex environment than when the push for increased transparency first generated momentum ten years ago, especially given the rise in blended finance as a strategy for sustainable development. George Ingram, The Brookings Institution, opened the event by articulating three challenges facing the international community: the “vastly greater need for finance… well beyond foreign assistance;” the magnitude of resources being directed to humanitarian issues; and countries that can now finance their own development, but still require some external assistance. He notes in a summary blog post that aid transparency enables donors, partners and other stakeholders to track where and how aid is being provided, as well as what is needed moving forward in terms of thematic areas and targeting assistance.

The Asian Development Bank ranks highest on the 2018 Index, followed by UNDP. While 93% of Index organizations publish to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard—compared to about 25% in the 2016 Index—only these top two institutions publish on all indicators in the IATI Standard. Five other donors also feature in the “very good” category: the UK Department for International Development (DFID), African Development Bank (AfDB), US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), World Bank International Development Association (IDA), and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The Index notes that, as a group, DFIs are collectively performing above average.

Publish What You Fund summarizes findings for US and EU entities in two accompanying briefs. The US brief recognizes efforts by the US Government to increase the transparency of its foreign assistance, but flags that progress has not been even across the five institutions ranked. The MCC performs highest, with a composite score of 87 and overall ranking of fifth, while the Department of Defense is ranked lowest, scoring 48.6 and ranking 30th. The brief also summarizes recent US legislation that features transparency requirements, and notes how US donors have shifted practices. For example, MCC and USAID had previously published to IATI via the US Department of State, but now submit directly to the IATI registry.

The EU brief highlights Brexit and the influx of migrants and refugees to Europe, noting that these and other issues have raised questions on how aid budgets are being used and/or will change in response to such challenges. Of the 19 European donor institutions featured, only the UK’s DFID ranked in the “very good” category, as the most transparent organization. However, the brief notes that all European donors included in the Index now regularly publish information in an open and comparable format, with 12 of the institutions doing so on a monthly basis. The brief recommends focusing on two key areas—finance/budgets and performance—to further-increase transparency and uniformity.

Welcoming its ranking as the second most transparent aid organization, also on 20 June UNDP announced the launch of a Transparency Portal that allows users to search over 6,000 UNDP projects by location, donor country, thematic focus area or SDG. A press release notes that the Portal includes a training platform on the IATI Standard. [2018 Aid Transparency Index] [Brookings Launch of 2018 Index] [Publish What You Fund 2018 US Brief] [Publish What You Fund 2018 EU Brief] [UNDP Transparency Portal] [UNDP Press Release] [George Ingram Blog: How better aid transparency will help tackle global development challenges]

related posts