[open-development] Fwd: Letters to IATI signatories

Wed Jul 7 15:49:11 UTC 2010

This also might be of interest in relation to the letters...

http://www.devex.com/articles/ngos-press-donors-on-aid-transparency-standard?source=ArticleHomepage_MostPopularNews_4

NGOs Press Donors on Aid Transparency Standard

By Ivy Mungcal <http://www.devex.com/people/363136-ivy> on 07 July 2010

[image: Newswire_070710_USAID_400x300.jpg]

Some of the world’s largest civil society organizations urge the U.S. and
other donors to support a global standard for reporting aid information.
Photo by: USAID <http://www.flickr.com/photos/usaid_images/> / CC
BY-NC-ND<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en>

·

Civil society representatives from around the globe are urging donors
to support
a global aid transparency
standard<http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/news/2010/07/press-release-crunch-time-aid-reform>,
which they say is key to ensuring effective aid delivery.

Members of the International Aid Transparency
Initiative’s<http://www.aidtransparency.net/whos-involved%20>steering
committee and representatives of the initiative’s 18 signatories
were set to meet July 7 in Paris to agree on the scope of an international
standard for disclosing and publishing aid information. Two observers, from
France and the U.S., were also expected to attend.

In letters sent to key donor
countries<http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/campaign-targets/international-aid-transparency-initiative/iati-letters-ministers>and
international organizations, 35 NGOs urges participants of the meeting
to agree on a standard that provides for the following:

- Up-to-date information on current aid flows to back improved aid
information management.

- Information on future aid flows to help donors, NGOs and aid recipients
plan and budget spending.

- Using common definitions and formats that are compatible with partner
countries’ budgets and systems, when publishing aid information.

The 35 NGOs include four members of the IATI steering committee, namely
Better Aid, International Budget Partnership, Transparency International and
Publish What You Fund.

Karin Christiansen, the director of the global campaign for aid
transparency, Publish What You Fund, explained the importance of having a
global aid transparency standard:

“I guess this could sound dull, but it’s actually revolutionary. This is
like creating HTML, agreed weights and measures, or an accounting standard;
without common formats we couldn’t communicate on the web or buy and sell
effectively.”

The availability of timely, comparable and comprehensive aid information
would help governments identify how much they are spending or receiving and
where the funds are going. A global standard also allows government to
measure whether aid is working, according to Publish What You Fund.

“In addition, disclosure in a common standard allows donors to coordinate
their efforts and align their resources with the development agendas and
budgets of recipient countries,” the organization said.

The NGOs argued that some resources are needed to update aid information
that is already available in donor information management systems.

They also expressed concern that some representatives of the IATI
signatories are reluctant to shift past current aid information publishing
processes.

“This will severely limit the value of this work, particularly for the very
countries and people the aid is meant to assist,” the NGOs said in their
letter.

ONE, Eurodad, ActionAid, BOND, Oxfam GB, Oxfam America, the U.K. Aid Network
and World Vision International were among the organizations that endorsed
the letter sent to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, U.K., U.S.,
Australia, Switzerland and U.N. Development Programs among other major
donors.

-- 

Karin Christiansen

Director, Publish What you Fund

UK tel: +44 20 7022 1909

US tel: + 1 202 470 3447

Skype: publish.what.you.fund

-----Original Message-----
From: open-development-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:
open-development-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Gray
Sent: 06 July 2010 7:47 PM
To: open-development
Subject: [open-development] Fwd: Letters to IATI signatories

FYI

http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/campaign-targets/international-aid-transparency-initiative/iati-letters-ministers

-- 

Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator

The Open Knowledge Foundation

http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg

http://identi.ca/jwyg

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