Last week, the Danish aid agency Danida unveiled of a set of initiatives (what it has called their ‘transparency package’). This package includes a programme and project database, which will be updated annually. In all, there are four new sections on the aid agency’s website:

• Send feedback to Danida: Organisations or individuals can directly praise, criticise or raise a complaint.
• Report corruption: Report any suspected irregularity or if you have experienced corruption related to its activities.
• Participate in public consultations: A line-up for the next few months is already posted, with each consultation running for two weeks.
• View documents: See minutes, summaries from meetings of the Council for Development Policy, which provides strategic advice to the development cooperation minister, or proposals for deliberation.
• Access data on projects and programs: Will update its database, which is currently in Danish, annually.

Danida also began publishing to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Registry and published a schedule to fully implement IATI, per an agreement reached at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. We were pleased with the implementation schedule’s commitment to re-publish at least quarterly (a key partner country demand), though forward-looking and performance data is not included.

These initiatives are part of the excellent work that Demark is doing to  make its aid transparent and fulfil commitments made in the aid reform legislation passed in 2011, which came into force in January.