The UK Department for International Development relaunched the project information section of its website on 17th August 2010. The improved search interface will allow greater scrutiny of DFID’s spending from its partners and the public.

This is an important improvement of the transparency of the UK’s aid: A new "advanced" search can be used to find information on aid effectiveness, project start date and stage, nature and source of funding, and whether conditions are attached. DFID also publishes the full projects dataset as an XML file that can be reused by developers building their own applications. This will enable the data to become used for all audiences and purposes.

This is a great start. Let’s hope this commitment to transparency continues with UK leadership in the International Aid Transparency Initiative.