International Aid Transparency Initiative

28 March 2009

Why is transparency of aid important?

When donors provide aid, they should tell the public about it in a way that people can easily understand.

Aid transparency means that everyone can see how much aid is being provided, what it is being spent on, and what it aims to achieve. Making aid open to public scrutiny helps to ensure it is used in the most effective ways. It also helps citizens in both donor countries and developing countries hold their governments to account for using aid money wisely.

Being transparent about aid flows helps:

• Governments to better plan and manage aid they receive, so that each pound goes as far as possible in fighting poverty
• Citizens in developing countries to understand the aid that their country is receiving and what it is being used for
• Parliamentarians and NGOs in developing countries to track aid flows and ensure that every pound is spent in the most effective way
• Citizens in donor countries, such as the UK, to understand how their taxes are being used to help fight poverty
• Donors and development agencies to take into account the activities of other donors when making their own plans, helping them to co-ordinate their work.

Making aid more effective

We know from experience that transparency helps to improve aid effectiveness. For example:

• In Uganda, an information campaign about donor funded education programmes helped to increase the share of funds reaching schools from 20% in 1995 to more than 80% by 2001.
• The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) sets a global standard for oil and mining companies to publish what they pay, and for governments to disclose what they receive. The EITI has helped Nigeria to increase revenue collection by $1 billion.

What is the International Aid Transparency Initiative?

The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) aims to make public information on aid spending and activities more available and more accessible, worldwide. The initiative brings together donors, partner countries, civil society organisations and other users of aid information to agree common transparency standards for aid flows. DFID and a group of bilateral and multilateral donors launched the IATI in September 2008.

The full set of standards will be drawn up after detailed consultations with partner countries, civil society organisations and other users of aid information. The standards are expected to require donors to:

• publish core information on aid flows and activities, including full details of all aid to each country, details and costs of individual projects and their aims, and reliable information on future aid to help governments of developing countries improve their planning
• use common formats and definitions, to make information easier to access and compare
• make it easier for information to be exchanged electronically, between different systems and databases
• develop a code of conduct which sets out how people should be able to access information, what they should do if information is not readily available, and how donors will be held to account if they do not comply with the standards

Below is a link to the IATI declaration signed in Accra in September 2008.

Who is involved in IATI?

By February 2009, 16 donors had signed up to the IATI: the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Norway, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, the European Commission, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Hewlett Foundation, the GAVI Alliance, and the UK. We are working hard to encourage all donors to sign up. The initiative is also being endorsed by a growing number of partner countries.

IATI is governed by a multi-stakeholder steering committee including representatives from bilateral, multilateral and non-traditional donors, experts in aid information and statistics, partner countries and civil society organisations.

The initiative has a multi-stakeholder secretariat comprising DFID, UNDP and the Aid Information team at the non-profit organisation Development Initiatives for Poverty Research (DIPR.) 

Where can I find out more?

For more information about IATI and how to get involved, please contact Romilly Greenhill at DFID on r-greenhill@dfid.gov.uk

To read more about the initiative and what it seeks to achieve, please see the links below

• Better Information, Better Aid - consultation paper on the case for greater transparency of aid information by Development Initiatives for Poverty Research (DIPR)
• IATI Concept Note IATI
• Accra Declaration