In a recent event organized by Publish What You Fund, BOND and UK Aid Network, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening spoke about the Aid Transparency Challenge launched by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Under this challenge, all “organizations receiving DFID Partnership Programme Arrangement funding will now publish data in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard this year.”
IATI came into existence in September 2008 in Ghana bringing together donor countries, governments from developing countries, NGOs and aid experts to agree on “a common, open, international standard for publishing more, and better, information about aid. This standard was agreed in February 2011.” The initiative is endorsed by 22 partner countries of DFID and there are 35 major aid providers also sharing the same objective.
An important part of this initiative is that the UK Government will set up the “Aid Transparency Challenge Fund, which will encourage the development of tools to improve traceability of aid and the use of aid data.
A new tool for promoting transparency was launched by DFID at the Open Up! Conference held recently. The tool is called the Open Aid Information Platform which improves access to aid data.
Digital tools and new technology have the power not only to bring social change but also to make aid recipients accountable and transparent in their spending. DFID and other agencies under the IATI are also exploring these technologies to make aid funding more effective.