A new study by Transparency International (TI) finds that development assistance from emerging economies is less transparent than traditional donors, particularly when it comes to disclosing where the money goes and giving locals a say.

Conducted with researchers from Columbia University and Hertie School of Governance, the study examined how traditional (Germany and the United States) and emerging (Brazil, China and India) providers of development cooperation operate in four post-conflict countries: Colombia,Liberia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The researchers looked at how much cooperation was provided, whether there was a master plan guiding it and if different local actors were involved in the decisions about how to spend this money, and used indicators from the 2012 Aid Index.

Craig Fagan, Senior Policy Coordinator at TI, said:

“The Publish What You Fund Index and the aid effectiveness indicators in use by the DAC are the standard for globally accepted indicators to measure the transparency and accountability of aid.

“The research pulled from these frameworks a smaller sub-set of indicators that we saw as critical  for understanding whether an everyday person can found out information on development flows from and to their country.”

Read more on this topic in TI’s detailed web feature here