Oxfam report highlights necessity of aid information
As part of their Ownership in Practice series, Oxfam America has this week released the report ‘Information: Let countries know what donors are doing’. The report highlights the urgent need to address the lack of aid information which, if available in an accessible, comprehensive, timely and comparable format, would increase donor- recipient coordination and more effective aid.
Publish What You Fund was pleased to have been included in the consultation process, and particularly welcomes the report’s recommendations to ensure that US policies and laws on aid transparency also speak to the needs of recipients and support capacity for transparency in countries.
This important series has duly been praised by USAID Administrator Raj Shah, who said that U.S. foreign assistance has often been ‘criticized for building parallel systems that are not visible to local government […] that are not aligned with the long term strategic and financial capabilities of the governments with whom we hope to partner.’
We look forward to the two further reports in the series, which will cover supporting countries’ efforts to manage development, and control in responding to country priorities.