On 26 October Italian Parliament passed a bill in the lower house which includes a commitment to ‘maximise [aid] transparency following CRS++ and IATI, if resources are available’.

The acknowledgement of the value of aid transparency and the need for an international common standard from the Italian government is a positive step. ActionAid Italy have been working towards this and we congratulate them on keeping up the pressure to achieve the passing of this bill.

However, the Italian government could go further: the bill is too vague in that it does not state to what extent Italy will be implementing the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) given that it will be conditional on financial resources. Crucially, Italy should become a signatory of IATI and provide a timeframe for publishing its aid information.