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.
Our organization has not established such tools and there we would wish to find out how we can benefit from this programme in order to share with other.Kenya is now experiencing the transition from central government to decentralized government after the promulgation of the new constitution. The challenge is that communities members are not aware of that public funds should be monitored to ensure that it serves the purpose it was intend to serve.People need knowledge on how to track public funds to ensure transparency and accountability.How can we benefit from your programme?
Thank Dennis OKoyo
The problem is that Aid transparency is only required from small local organizations and governments “end funding receivers”. But tricky mafia does often happen within donor’s agencies operating in aids receivers’ countries. Knowing what happens in in detail at this level when aids are being managed and distributed in small portions by donors’ representing agencies and affiliated international NGOs, it is terrible ! This new tool should consist of verifying the usage of aids by agencies in poor countries and International NGOs as well as local NGOs. This tool should provide information for the beneficiaries (the poor) to know how much the aids was and how much they have received.
Our organisation established with concern of the national outcry about the increase of fraud at the Public sectors and local Government Authorities to fight and combat fraud and Financial Crime. We will apprecaite to be involved to have the tools on tracing the public expenditure with will be published in public to establish the accountability and transsparency of public fund. Also we develop the training for the oversight organ at the Central and Local Government to prevent and combat Fraud.
Thanks