London – Publish What You Fund yesterday welcomed the announcement of a new “Aid Transparency Guarantee” by the UK Government. The Guarantee promises that “aid information will be made fully transparent to citizens in both the UK and recipient countries”. Implementing these standards in the UK and advocating for other donors to adopt the same will result in a significant increase in aid effectiveness.
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has instructed all Government departments to act on the coalition’s promise of increased transparency in Government data. The Prime Minister’s May 31st letter stated:
‘The Coalition: our programme for government’ was released today, 20th May 2010. We welcome the new government’s focus on increasing aid transparency as set out in Chapter 18 (p.22) on International Development, which starts by introducing its priority to ‘ensure much greater transparency and scrutiny of aid spending to deliver value for money for British taxpayers and to maximise the impact of our aid budget’.
As Andrew Mitchell becomes the UK’s International Development Secretary, Liz Ford lays out what we can expect from this government department in the Guardian’s Katine blog.
The ONE Campaign asked Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron and their respective parties to speak on the record about their stance on aid spending. Both Labour and the Lib Dems state their commitment to aid transparency in their answers to the question: ‘UK development assistance is well respected, but are there ways in which you would increase its effectiveness?’
The Report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt Aid and Trade stresses the importance of coordination between donors, recipient country ownership, and predictability and accountability of aid. Below are the recommendations made in conclusion to the report, with transparency mentions highlighted.
