Publish What You Fund congratulates the CDC for becoming the first bilateral development finance institution to sign up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

As the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in the Republic of Korea comes to a close, CDC, the UK’s financial development institute joins 25 other signatories to the initiative, increasing and strengthening their commitment to transparency and accountability.

UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell welcomed this “crucial new step” for the CDC, entering a new era of increased transparency. By joining the IATI, the CDC commit to publishing information on their investments in private sector businesses across the developing world, to a common international standard that will make their information more open and accessible.

The CDC’s investment in nearly 1000 private sector businesses has a value of approximately £2 billion. Their participation in IATI will be an important addition to the current stakeholders, and indicates the value of IATI in engaging with a broad range of development actors, including the private sector, that are recognised as a vital part of the development cooperation picture.

In a press release issued yesterday, the CDC’s Chief Executive, Diana Noble commented;

“Our decision to sign up to IATI comes as part of our increasing commitment to transparency and to demonstrating the value for money and impact that CDC’s investment in poor countries brings. On our own website cdcgroup.com, we already publish details of the investments we have made that support almost 1,000 businesses and over 3 million lives. We are determined to go further and help those interested in development better understand the way we invest.”