When the U.S. made its first foray into the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), it adopted a “whole of government” approach. While there is merit to having various agencies of government speaking with one voice, this also creates problems when it comes to publishing quality data. We were very encouraged when the U.S. changed course on this and […]
The United States’ largest spending aid agency, USAID, has published its plan for increasing openness and transparency. Although delayed by several months after the June 1st deadline, USAID’s Open Government Plan is an improvement on its previous ambitions. The report references USAID’s ongoing commitment to publish aid information to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), and its goal […]
Guest post by George Ingram, chair of our U.S. Advisory Committee & Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Transparency is a hallmark of good governance. It empowers citizens and keeps government officials on task and shields them from undue political and private pressures. Transparency is the protector and energizer of democracy and responsive government. It brings government closer to […]
We recently joined civil society networks and organisations worldwide in calling for the EU’s new leadership to commit to close engagement with – and eventual membership of – the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Since its launch in 2011, we have supported the OGP as a multi-stakeholder mechanism enabling participating countries to commit to making their governments more […]
The U.S. is on-course to meet many of its open government commitments, according to the latest civil society progress report on the Government’s National Action Plan. Specifically on foreign assistance transparency, the U.S. has made partial progress. In recent months, that progress seems to be accelerating. The report notes that “in order for the U.S. government to meet its […]
In the last few weeks the Foreign Assistance Dashboard added two new U.S. agencies to its list of publishers. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its aid information on May 28 and the State Department on June 1. Publish What You Fund welcomes this progress, but initial analysis raises some very basic quality issues. […]
