News
We asked some of the leading voices in global aid transparency to tell us why it is important.
Ory Okolloh, Omidyar Network’s Government Transparency initiative in Africa.
Ory Okolloh from Publish What You Fund on Vimeo.
E sol Cho, ODA Watch Korea
E sol Cho ODA Watch from Publish What You Fund on Vimeo.
Hamzat Lawal, Follow the Money Nigeria
Voices in Aid Transparency: FTM Nigeria from Publish What You Fund on Vimeo.
Samuel Rotta Castilla, Proética (Peruvian chapter of Transparency International)
Voices in Aid Transparency: Samuel Rotta Castilla from Publish What You Fund on Vimeo.
BRUSSELS – Despite making several international transparency commitments, the vast majority of Europe’s aid donors are still not sharing enough data about their development activities.
The Aid Transparency Index (ATI), released today by Publish What You Fund, is the industry standard for assessing transparency among the top 68 aid-giving organisations, from countries including the U.S. and Germany, to influential organisations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation.
The United Nations Development Programme came first, knocking the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation off last year’s top spot, and China finished last for the second year in a row.
In Europe, the gap between high and poor performers is widening. There is growing group of European “transparency champions” that are publishing more information about their aid in accessible and comparable formats, but the majority of EU donors have made little or no progress to-date.
Rachel Rank, Publish What You Fund, said:
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency, including a promise to publish aid information to an internationally-agreed common standard by the end of 2015. But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has stalled. The ranking shows that no matter how many international promises are made, and no matter how many speeches there are around openness, a startling amount of organisations are still not publishing what they fund.”
Linda McAvan, Chair of the European Parliament’s Development Committee said:
“ Greater transparency on aid flows is absolutely critical to enabling parliamentarians and civil society organisations to hold policymakers to account. We need to ensure we are able provide European taxpayers with assurances that their money is being spent in the most effective way possible.’
The EC’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), DGs Enlargement and Development and Cooperation-EuropeAid are among the biggest improvers this year, joining consistently high-ranking performers UK and Sweden in the top two categories.
Finland, Ireland and Spain also made progress in 2014, together with France’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Development (MAEDI), which began publishing information about its aid to selected countries for the first time.
However, these efforts are being undermined by those EU donors that are failing to deliver on their commitments.
Nineteen EU member states appear in the poor or very poor categories. These are a mix of old and new agencies, with varying aid budget sizes ,and include the EU presidency trio of Italy (incumbent) and Latvia and Luxembourg, future hosts of the presidency during 2015, European Year for Development.
Greece remains in the bottom slot as the least transparent European donor, ranking 67th of the 68 organisations, just above China. As the newest member of the EU, Croatia was ranked in the ATI for the first time and finished in 56th place
In order to realise the transformative potential of open data in improving development effectiveness, the EU needs to work together to drive forward collective action on aid transparency and learn from best practice on data publication and use.
To see all the findings of the 2014 ATI, visit: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
/ Ends
Contact: Nicole Valentinuzzi T: +44 (0)7726 831 197 nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite a looming deadline on international transparency commitments, most U.S. aid agencies are still not publishing enough data about their development activities.
The Aid Transparency Index (ATI), released today by Publish What You Fund, is the industry standard for assessing transparency among the top 68 donors, from countries including the U.S. and Germany, to influential organisations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation.
The United Nations Development Programme comes first in the ranking this year, knocking MCC off last year’s top spot. But MCC continues to be a leader publishing high quality aid information, while the two main U.S. aid agencies – USAID and the State Department – still lag behind. China finished last for the second year in a row.
The U.S. is critical to making global aid transparency work, and some agencies are making great strides to publish their aid data. However, these efforts are being undermined by those agencies that are failing to deliver on their commitments.
Rachel Rank, Publish What You Fund, said:
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency, including a promise to publish aid information to an internationally-agreed common standard by the end of 2015. But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has stalled. The ranking shows that no matter how many international promises are made, and no matter how many speeches there are around openness, a startling amount of organisations are still not publishing what they fund.”
PEPFAR is the biggest improver in the U.S. in the 2014 ATI and has made a clear commitment to publishing useable data.
Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D., U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator:
“PEPFAR is committed to working with partners to deliver an AIDS-free generation. This is only possible by using data that are digestible, understandable, transparent, and actionable to improve program impact with sustainable results.”
The U.S. is the world’s single largest bilateral donor, and in 2011 committed to make its aid fully transparent. The delivery on this international commitment is critical to meeting the global goal of aid transparency.
In order to realize the transformative potential of open data in improving development effectiveness, the donor community needs to work together to drive forward collective action on aid transparency and learn from best practice on data use.
To see all the findings of the 2014 ATI, visit: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
/ Ends
Contact: Nicole Valentinuzzi T: +44 (0)7726 831 197 / +1 202.701.9753 nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
Notes:
- Publish What You Fund is the global campaign for aid transparency, advocating for a significant increase in the availability and accessibility of comprehensive, timely and comparable aid information. The organisation monitors the transparency of aid donors in order to track progress, encourage further transparency and hold them to account. The ATI is the only global measure of aid transparency.
- At the Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011, the world’s largest aid providers committed to publishing their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) by the end of 2015. IATI is the only global common standard for publishing aid information that ensures data is timely, comprehensive, comparable & accessible.
- Watch the event live on 8 Oct @ 9am ET: http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/livestream/
68개 국제 공여기관 중 한국 KOICA 34위 등극 국제사회에서 중하위권 수준에 머물러
국가별 원조투명성 현황을 비교·측정하는 국제사회의 대표적 지수인 원조투명성지수(Aid
Transparency Index)에서 한국 무상원조 시행기관인 한국국제협력단(이하 KOICA)이 2014
년 전체 68개 기관 중 34위를 차지했다. KOICA는 전체 순위에서 원조투명성이 낮은 하위
(poor)1) 그룹에 속하며, 양자 원조기관 50개 중에서는 20위에 올랐다. 1위는 UNDP가 차지
했고, 영국 국제개발부(DFID)가 그 뒤를 이었다. 2013년 1위의 영예를 안았던 미국
Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC)는 3위로 떨어졌지만 여전히 높은 순위를 유지한
반면, 미국의 대표 원조기관인 국제개발청(USAID)은 31위에 그쳤다. 일본 국제협력기구
(JICA)는 한국 KOICA 보다 한 단계 높은 33위에 오르며 작년대비 순위를 역전시켰다.
2013년의 경우 JICA가 37위, KOICA는 30위에 오르며 한국이 일본보다 높은 등수를 차지한
바 있다.
본 지수를 주관하는 국제 원조투명성 캠페인조직인 Publish What You Fund(본부 영국 소
재, 이하 PWYF)는 지난 2010년부터 원조투명성지수(ATI)를 측정해왔으며, ODA Watch는
PWYF의 협력단체로서 한국 측 서베이어를 담당하고 있다. 기존에는 한국 무·유상원조 대
표기관인 KOICA와 한국수출입은행(EDCF) 양 기관 모두 포함됐으나, 2013년부터 본 지수
의 평가대상 선정기준이 변경됨에 따라 2014년 현재 한국에서는 KOICA가 유일한 공여기
관으로 선정되어 참여하고 있다.
PWYF 사무국에 따르면 KOICA의 등수가 작년에 비해 떨어진 이유는 다른 공여기관들이
IATI 기준에 따라 상세 원조정보를 점차적으로 공개하기 시작하면서 국제사회 내 상대적인
순위가 하락했기 때문이다. 실제로 2014년 KOICA가 받은 ATI 점수는 36.9%로, 2013년
27.94%에 비해 기관의 절대적인 투명성 수준은 소폭 상승했다고 볼 수 있다. PWYF는
KOICA가 기관 차원의 정보와 사업 분류에 관한 정보는 비교적 투명하게 공개하는 반면,
특히 기초사업정보 공개가 체계적이지 않고, 재정적 측면 공개가 취약함을 지적했다.
이처럼 KOICA가 자체적으로는 소폭이나마 투명성이 높아졌음에도 불구하고, 국제사회 내
순위가 하락한 것은 그만큼 한국에 비해 전 세계의 원조투명성 수준이 빠른 속도로 상향되
고 있음을 의미한다. 특히 2012년 부산글로벌파트너십을 계기로 2015년까지 전 세계가 국제
원조투명성기구(International Aid Transparency Initiative, 이하 IATI)에 가입하고, 동 기준
에 따라 정보를 공개하겠다는 약속을 서서히 이행하기 시작하면서, 전 세계의 원조투명성이
향상되고 있음을 알 수 있다. 즉, 국제사회가 요구하는 수준까지 한국 원조의 투명성을 끌
어올리기 위해서는 아직 가야할 길이 멀다.
한국 정부는 2014년 3월 제 18차 국제개발협력위원회를 통해 2015년까지 IATI에 가입하겠
다는 계획을 발표했다. 현재 국무조정실 산하에 「IATI 가입 관계기관 T/F」가 설치되어
가입 및 정보공개를 위한 로드맵을 구축하는 과정 중에 있다. KOICA, EDCF 개별 기관이
아닌 한국 원조 전체의 이름으로 IATI에 가입하는 만큼, 정부는 원조투명성지수를 높이는
것이 KOICA만의 과제가 아닌 국내 원조기관 전반의 책무임을 주지해야 할 것이다.
더불어 IATI 가입 과정에서 한국 시민사회를 비롯한 다양한 이해관계자의 활발한 참여와
논의를 포괄할 수 있어야 한다. 이에 ODA Watch는 오는 10월 23일(목) “2015년 한국 원조
IATI 가입, 무엇이 달라질까?” 라는 주제로 ODA 토크를 개최하여 2015년을 기점으로 한국
원조투명성에 생겨날 변화와 이를 위해 필요한 개선 사항 등에 대해 정부, 시민사회, 학계
전반을 초대하여 함께 논의하는 자리를 가질 예정이다.
이태주, ODA Watch 대표 :
● Rachel Rank, Publish What You Fund, said:
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency,
including a promise to publish aid information to an internationally-agreed common
standard by the end of 2015. But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has
stalled. The ranking shows that no matter how many international promises are made,
and no matter how many speeches there are around openness, a startling amount of
organisations are still not publishing what they fund.”
“2015년 말까지 국제사회가 합의한 공통의 기준에 따라 원조 정보를 공개하겠다는 공약이
도출되면서 원조투명성에 관한 초기 논의과정에서는 정치적 수준의 상당한 진전이 이뤄져
왔으나 목표 시일을 일 년 앞둔 현재, 속도가 점차 더뎌지고 있다. 2014년 ATI 지수 결과는
국제사회에 원조투명성에 관한 수사적인 공약과 언사가 넘쳐나지만, 생각보다 많은 기관들
이 여전히 원조 정보를 공개하지 않고 있음을 보여준다”
# 붙 임
É lançado hoje, 8 de Outubro, em Washington, o Índice de Transparência da Ajuda ao Desenvolvimento 2014 (ATI, na sigla em inglês), um relatório anual que avalia o desempenho dos principais financiadores internacionais neste domínio incluindo, para além de países como os Estados Unidos, Portugal ou a China, organizações como o Banco Mundial e a Fundação Bill e Melinda Gates.
O relatório, lançado pela Publish What you Fund, tem-se afirmado como o principal instrumento para avaliação qualitativa dessa transparência relativamente a 68 organizações e agências internacionais de Ajuda ao Desenvolvimento, incluindo o Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, entidade pública nacional responsável pela coordenação e execução das políticas públicas de Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento.
As conclusões do ATI de 2014 sublinham que, apesar dos compromissos internacionais sobre a transparência que têm sido reiteradamente assumidos pelos decisores políticos, a maioria dos financiadores europeus continua a não disponibilizar, publicamente e de forma facilmente acessível, informação suficiente para uma avaliação eficaz dos seus projectos e actividades de Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento.
Num ranking liderado este ano pelo Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento e com a China a ocupar o último lugar pelo Segundo ano consecutivo, a nível europeu têm-se acentuado a diferença entre as organizações com melhor e pior desempenho. Existe um crescent número de “campeões da transparência” que publicam mais informação sobre os fluxos de Ajuda ao Desenvolvimento de uma forma acessível e comparável, mas relativamente à maioria dos doadores da União Europeia os progressos feitos a este nível têm sido quase nulos.
Linda MCAvan, que preside à Comissão de Desenvolvimento do Parlamento Europeu referiu que “conseguir uma maior transparência em relação aos fluxos da Ajuda ao Desenvolvimento é um aspect essencial para permitir aos deputados europeus e às Organizações da Sociedade Civil responsabilizarem os decisores políticos perante os seus compromissos e as suas falhas. É necessário assegurar que podemos garantir aos contribuintes dos vários países da UE que o dinheiro dos seus impostos está a ser gasto da forma mais eficaz possível”.
Dezanove Estados Membros da União Europeia são classificados no ATI nas categorias de desempenho “fraco” ou “muito fraco”, incluindo a Itália, Letónia, Luxemburgo, Grécia e Portugal.
Portugal na 27.ª posição do ranking
Relativamente a Portugal, o Camões I.P. ocupa o 27º lugar entre 50 financiadores bilaterais, com uma pontuação global de 26,5%, construída através da análise de 39 indicadores.
Apesar deste resultado globalmente baixo, o relatório assinala que são vários os progressos registados relativamente aos dados de 2013, sublinhando um bom desempenho ao nível da publicação de informação financeira e de planeamento global. É ao nível dos dados financeiros sobre projectos e actividades específicas e também ao nível da avaliação de impacto dessas actividades que verificam as principais falhas de Portugal.
Pedro Krupenski, Presidente da Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD, referiu que “é justo assinalar os progressos verificados. Contudo, numa conjuntura em que os recursos alocados à cooperação para o desenvolvimento são escassos, é (ainda mais) fundamental garantir que a aplicação do dinheiro público seja eficaz face aos objectives propugnados e ao impacto que tem na vida das pessoas. Como tal, éprecisamente na área da avaliação de impacto das actividades de cooperação que terão que se verificar progressos urgentes. Doutro modo corre-se o sério risco de se gastar muito em muito pouco, no que diz respeito à melhoria de condições de vida das comunidades apoiadas”.
Continua, por isso, a ser necessário reforçar a mobilização colectiva dos Estados membros da União Europeia para o cumprimento efectivo dos compromissos assumidos em matéria de transparência, aprendendo com as boas práticas internacionais já existentes no que diz respeito à publicação e à acessibilidade de informação.
Conclusões do ATI 2014 em: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
Pedro Krupenski Presidente da Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD (963076905 /pedro.krupenski@oikos.pt)
Ana Fi l ipa Ol iveira: Represente do Grupo de Trabalho AidWatch da Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD (914463194 / info@acep.pt)
Paris, le 8 octobre 2014 – Malgré les engagements présidentiels sur la transparence de l’aide pris à l’occasion du G8 de juin 2013, la France peine à publier ses données en matière d’aide publique au développement (APD) au standard international.
Publish What You Fund publie aujourd’hui son Index sur la Transparence de l’Aide (ITA), qui évalue la transparence des 68 plus grandes institutions et agences d’aide, dont celles de la plupart des pays européens, des Etats-Unis mais aussi d’organisations multilatérales telle la Banque Mondiale ou de grandes Fondations comme la Fondation Gates.
Pour Rachel Rank de Publish What You Fund : « Beaucoup de progrès ont été accomplis au niveau politique depuis les prémices de la transparence de l’aide, notamment l’engagement de publier des informations sur l’aide au standard international IITA d’ici la fin de l’année 2015. Mais à un an de l’échéance, rien ne bouge. Le classement révèle que malgré les promesses internationales et les beaux discours, un grand nombre d’organisations ne publient toujours pas leurs données ».
En France, l’Index passe au crible trois institutions en charge de l’aide française : le Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement International (MAEDI), l’Agence Française pour le Développement (AFD) et le Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances (MINEFI). Les résultats sont mitigés : L’AFD et le MINEFI se classent respectivement 44èmeet 58ème sur 68 et seul le MAE a progressé passant du 52ème au 28ème rang.
« La France est loin d’être exemplaire en matière de transparence de l’aide. Les ministères et administrations concernées (Trésor, Agence Française de Développement) s’opposent à rendre effectif l’engagement présidentiel du G8 de juin 2013 de publier au standard international l’ensemble des données de l’aide française et de développer ainsi une véritable politique de transparence », déclare Christian Reboul, d’Oxfam France et administrateur de la plateforme d’ONG françaises, Coordination SUD.
« Alors que la transparence est une condition de l’efficacité de l’aide, cette mauvaise volonté nous inquiète. Ce défaut de volonté politique intervient alors que le gouvernement vient de rendre public ses arbitrages pour le budget 2015 annonçant une baisse supplémentaire de 3% des crédits alloués à l’Aide Publique au Développement », poursuit-il.
L’engagement présidentiel en faveur de la transparence a été en partie acté dans la Loi d’orientation et de programmation relative à la politique française de développement votée en début d’année 2014. Cependant, sa mise en oeuvre reste partielle malgré une première publication pour l’aide au Mali et l’extension de l’initiative au Burkina Faso, au Niger et à la Mauritanie.
« Madame Girardin, Secrétaire d’Etat au développement, souhaite faire de la transparence un axe fort de sa politique. Dans ces conditions, pourquoi avoir abandonné l’initiative lancée par son prédécesseur, Pascal Canfin, d’aboutir à un site transparence multi-bailleurs pour le Mali ? », s’interroge Christian Reboul. Rassembler l’ensemble des flux d’aide sous le format international IITA permettrait une grande avancée en matière de connaissance, de gouvernance et de contrôle des flux d’aide à destination du pays
Le gouvernement français doit intensifier ses efforts en termes d’efficacité et de transparence de l’aide, s’inspirer des bonnes pratiques en la matière afin de développer une politique exemplaire en matière d’aide publique au développement.
Toutes les données de l’Index 2014 sont disponibles en ligne: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
Contacts presse:
Nicole Valentinuzzi T: +44 (0)7726 831 197 nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
Fanny Mantaux T: +33 (0)1 77 35 76 00 fmantaux@oxfamfrance.org
Bénédicte Bimoko T: +33 (0) 1 44 72 03 78 bimoko@coordinationsud.org
TORONTO – Canada is one of the world’s most transparent donors of foreign aid, according to the 2014 Aid Transparency Index released today where Canada placed 11th of the 68 donors evaluated.
Transparency is vital to improving the effectiveness of work to eliminate global poverty. Being able to track how much aid is being spent, by whom and to what effect, better enables everyone involved—from recipient country governments to donor country taxpayers—to work together to accelerate global development.
In 2011, major aid donors committed to publicly publish aid information to an international common standard by the end of 2015. In part to hold donors to account on that promise, the UK-based organization Publish What You Fund releases the annual Aid Transparency Index, which rates the transparency of world’s largest bilateral donors.
Canada started at the back of the pack, ranking 28th in 2011 Aid Transparency Index and falling further to 32nd in 2012. But an ambitious implementation schedule led to a significant improvement in the amount and quality of Canada’s financial data, and in 2013 the country leapt to 8th in the Aid Transparency Index. This year’s move up to 4th reaffirms the results that Canada’s commitment to aid transparency is achieving.
Unfortunately, this rate of progress toward aid transparency is not widespread. The 2014 Aid Transparency Index also demonstrates that the vast majority of the world’s donors are still not sharing enough data about their development activities.
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency,” says Rachel Rank of Publish What You Fund, “But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has stalled.”
“We’re proud that Canada is at the forefront of the movement to make aid more transparent, and we hope our government will encourage and support other donors to follow our lead,” says Samantha Burton, Director of Policy & Advocacy at Engineers Without Borders Canada, “We’d also like to see Canada’s leadership continue at home, where more needs to be done to provide a full picture of how our country is spending our aid budget. For example, all aid-spending ministries—like the Department of Finance, the second biggest allocator of Canadian aid dollars—should be required to publish what they fund.”
ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS CANADA is a movement of over 50,000 professional engineers, students, overseas volunteer staff, and supporters across Canada and Africa. We believe that poverty is the product of broken systems that prevent people from realizing their full potential. Beating poverty means making those systems work. EWB is working to do exactly that.
PUBLISH WHAT YOU FUND is the global campaign for aid transparency, advocating for a significant increase in the availability and accessibility of comprehensive, timely and comparable aid information. The organisation monitors the transparency of aid donors in order to track progress, encourage further transparency and hold them to account. The Aid Transparency Index is the only global measure of aid transparency.
To see all the findings of the 2014 Aid Transparency Index, visit: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
MEDIA ENQUIRIES CONTACT
Samantha Burton
Director, Policy & Advocacy
Engineers Without Borders Canada
416-877-0710 | samburton@ewb.ca
Nicole Valentinuzzi
Campaigns & Communications Manager
Publish What You Fund
+44 (0)7726-831-197 | nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
Despite promising to improve transparency, including confirming Australia commitments to international transparency initiatives, the current Australian Government has failed to share enough data about their development activities.
The Aid Transparency Index (ATI), released today by Publish What You Fund, is the industry standard for assessing transparency among the top 68 aid-giving organisations, from countries including the U.S. and Germany, to influential organisations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation.
Although there has been a marginal improvement in Australia’s overall score, it has slipped in the ranking from 24th to 25th place on account of being overtaken by other organisations that publish more comprehensive information about their aid activities. It has made very little progress on publishing important information items including project-related documents, information on the location of its projects and results data. Furthermore, only a limited amount of project-level information that was previously available through the AusAID website can now be directly accessed via DFAT’s website.
Rachel Rank, Publish What You Fund, said:
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency, including a promise to publish aid information to an internationally-agreed common standard by the end of 2015. But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has stalled. The ranking shows that no matter how many international promises are made, and no matter how many speeches there are around openness, a startling amount of organisations are still not publishing what they fund.”
Shobaz Kandola, Australian Country Director, Global Poverty Project, said:
“To end extreme poverty we need to both increase the volume of overseas aid and increase the transparency of where and how funds are being spent. We need to be assured that aid is being used to improve the lives of millions around the world who live in poverty.
“Australians wouldn’t take well to coming 25th in a sports and neither should we accept it when it comes to aid transparency. We should be aim to be number one, to have the most transparent aid program in the world. While Australia’s overall score has gone up this year we have fallen in the rankings because others have done better.
“Upon taking office Foreign Minister Julie Bishop promised to improve transparency of the Australian aid program. This was at the heart of the new policy she announced earlier this year. In implementing her new aid policy Ms Bishop and her department should take into account the recommendations contained in today’s report.”
To see all the findings of the 2014 ATI, visit: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
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Contact:
Nicole Valentinuzzi T: +44 (0)7726 831 197 nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
Shobaz Kandola T : +1 917 402 6224 shobaz.kandola@globalpovertyproject.com
Bruxelles, 8 ottobre 2014 – Nonostante gli impegni presi per una maggiore trasparenza sul fronte dell’aiuto pubblico allo sviluppo, un buona parte dei Paesi donatori europei fatica a rendere disponibili più informazioni sugli interventi di sviluppo.
L’Indice sulla Trasparenza dell’Aiuto (The Aid Transparency Index, ATI), pubblicato oggi dall’organizzazione Publish What You Fund, analizza gli standard di trasparenza di 68 agenzie e organismi di cooperazione allo sviluppo, di Paesi tra cui Stati Uniti e Germania, e di organizzazioni come la Banca Mondiale e la Fondazione Gates.
“Secondo il Transparency Index, l’Italia migliora la propria posizione, ma si colloca ancora tra i Paesi con poca trasparenza (54esimo posto su 68), nonostante l’impegno a pubblicare i dati sugli aiuti secondo quanto previsto dagli standard internazionali” dichiara Marco De Ponte, Segretario Generale di ActionAid. “Ancora poche le informazioni disponibili on-line in modo tempestivo. Il Governo italiano ha la possibilità per fare di più, se intende allineare la performance a quella delle istituzioni più virtuose entro il 2015. Anche sul terreno della trasparenza si gioca il futuro della cooperazione italiana”.
L’organismo più trasparente è UNDP, seguito dalla Millennium Challenge Cooperation USA, mentre la Cina si attesta all’ultimo posto della classifica, per il secondo anno consecutivo. In Europa, aumenta la distanza tra i diversi Stati membri: c’è infatti un numero crescente di buoni “performer” che hanno aumentato il loro standard di trasparenza, rendendo le informazioni più accessibili; ma la maggioranza dei donatori europei hanno fatto pochi progressi.
Rachel Rank di Publish What You Fund dichiara: “C’è stato un avanzamento a livello politico, tra cui anche gli impegni presi a livello internazionale per la messa in opera di standard comuni entro il 2015; di fatto però ad un anno dalla scadenza, i progressi sono in una fase di stallo. L’indice mostra come, contrariamente alle promesse fatte in sede internazionale, e ai tanti discorsi in merito all’apertura dei dati, un numero impressionante di organizzazioni ancora non pubblicano i dati relativi agli interventi finanziati.”
Finlandia, Irlanda e Spagna presentano progressi in termini di trasparenza nel 2014, insieme al MAEDI (Ministero Francese per gli Affari Esteri e lo Sviluppo internazionale), che per la prima volta ha cominciato a pubblicare informazioni sugli aiuti a Paesi selezionati. Si tratta però di sforzi che sono messi a rischio da quei donatori europei che risultano indietro rispetto agli impegni presi.
Diciannove donatori UE sono nelle posizioni più basse dell’Indice: si tratta di nuove e vecchie agenzie, con budget variabili in termini numerici, tra cui i tre Paesi con Presidenza del Consiglio della UE, l’Italia (attuale) e Lettonia e Lussemburgo, Presidenti di turno durante il 2015, Anno europeo dello Sviluppo.
La Grecia rimane tra le posizioni più basse tra i donatori meno trasparenti della UE, al 67esimo posto della classifica delle 68 organizzazioni, solo un posto sopra la Cina. La Croazia, in quanto nuovo stato membro dell’Unione, è stato classificato dall’Indice per la prima volta quest’anno e si trova al 56esimo posto.
Per realizzare a pieno il potenziale di trasformazione degli open data e migliorare l’efficacia degli aiuti, l’Unione Europea deve lavorare congiuntamente verso una maggiore trasparenza degli aiuti e prendere ad esempio le buone pratiche sull’uso e la pubblicazione di dati.
Per maggiori informazioni: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
LONDON – Despite making several international transparency commitments, the vast majority of the world’s donors are still not sharing enough data about their development activities.
The Aid Transparency Index (ATI), released today by Publish What You Fund, is the industry standard for assessing transparency among the top 68 aid-giving organisations, from countries including the U.S. and Germany, to influential organisations such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation.
The United Nations Development Programme came first, knocking the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation off last year’s top spot, and China finished last for the second year in a row. Most donors ranked in the ATI still do not publish information about their activities in a meaningful way, making the data hard to access and use.
Rachel Rank, Publish What You Fund, said:
“A lot of progress was made at the political level in the early days of aid transparency, including a promise to publish aid information to an internationally-agreed common standard by the end of 2015. But with a year to go until that deadline, progress has stalled. The ranking shows that no matter how many international promises are made, and no matter how many speeches there are around openness, a startling amount of organisations are still not publishing what they fund.”
Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, said:
“Transparency is core to our mission. We are gratified to be recognized for our efforts to operate in an open, transparent manner. UNDP is committed to working in the open to spark innovation, to ensure the best possible use of funds entrusted to it and to accelerate the development of a sustainable future for all.”
Dalitso Kubalasa, Malawi Economic Justice Network, said:
“The ATI is an important measure of donors’ commitments to greatly help make their aid transparent – which is something we have asked for (and we will continue asking for) again and again. Donors must continue to push themselves to publish all the information as it can genuinely increase chances of making aid work better and much more effectively. If donors want to truly see the maximum value for their aid, they must walk the talk of transparency and accountability; with no any element of double standards in a true spirit of partnership. They must intensify publishing all information on their development cooperation properly to achieve all the intended development results.”
As in previous years, the ATI results show that a leading group of organisations are publishing large amounts of useful information on their current aid activities. Several agencies, including from the U.N., France and Japan, have made big improvements this year by publishing more information in accessible and comparable formats.
However, these efforts are being undermined by those donors that are failing to deliver on their commitments. In order to realise the transformative potential of open data in improving development effectiveness, the donor community needs to work together to drive forward collective action on aid transparency and learn from best practice on data use.
To see all the findings of the 2014 ATI, visit: http://ati.publishwhatyoufund.org/2014
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Contact: Nicole Valentinuzzi T: +44 (0)7726 831 197 / +1 202.701.9753 nicole@publishwhatyoufund.org
Is your country on the Road to 2015?
Find out more about the new campaign, and how you can get involved.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) has been set up by a group of leading international development organisations, with the aim of making information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand.
Launched in September 2008 at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid
Effectiveness, this pioneering initiative brings together donors, developing
countries and civil society organisations to help donors and their partners
meet their Accra Agenda for Action commitments on aid transparency.
After widespread consultation, IATI has decided to do this by:
- developing common standards to determine what information participating donors will publish, as well as the format in which the information will be presented
- setting up an on-line registry that will record the location of information about the aid that participating donors have decided to provide
What does the initiative do?
The IATI standard provides universal project classifications and definitions,
so that citizens, governments, parliamentarians and people working in the
development community can find out:
- how much money is being provided each year
- when it was, or is, due to be paid out
- how funds are expected to be used
Donors choose their own systems for collecting and publishing information. But a new central registry will make it possible for people to find information quickly and easily because it will tell users exactly where the information they need has been published.
Organisations only need to publish their aid information in one place and one format, but many different users will be able to access the information they need and use it for their own diverse purposes.
This widens access to aid information and result in more openness and accountability. It will be easier to monitor aid effectiveness and will thus help to accelerate poverty reduction.