Development Initiatives Poverty Research
International Aid Transparency Initiative
Appendix F – Summary of the Value of Access to Better Information1
Possible improvements
Detail
Full compliance with
existing DAC standards,
plus more detailed sector
and purpose codes,
location coding, financial
details, conditions and
other terms, actual
disbursements.
Sufficient detail is
needed for the aid be
reconciled with budget
classifications and timing.
Predictability
Publication in some form
of anticipated spending
for next 3 years, though
in less detail than for
current and past
spending
Timeliness
As near to real-time
publication as possible
Standards
Consistent, comparable
data, easier to access (i.e.
machine readable)
Traceability and
comprehensiveness
Publication of recipient
organisation, imposition
of transparency
standards on sub-
contractors, and use of a
common set of unique
identifiers for aid flows.
Common levels of
transparency by
multilaterals, NGOs,
implementing agencies
Standard indicators
1
From the aidinfo paper “Better Information: Better Aid”
Partner Country Governments
• Enhances ability to plan and
execute budgets
• Facilitates ownership of
development priorities
• Permits alignment with
budget, MTEF and national
development strategy
• Improves coordination of
government, donor and civil
society activities
• Enhances mutual
accountability
• Increased productivity of
public spending
• Improved macroeconomic
management
• Enhanced ability to budget
• Better macroeconomic
management
• Reduced duplication
• Greater accountability for
service delivery
• Easier aggregation and
comparison
• Reduced transactions costs
• Greater diversity of
applications to use aid data
• Ability to map information to
local definitions
• Cost-effectiveness
comparisons
• Reconciliation between
amounts disbursed with
amounts received
• Reduces corruption
• Increased competition among
service delivery
• Output and outcome
monitoring less onerous and
intrusive than conditionality
on inputs
Donor Governments NGOs / Civil Society
• Easier to link spending • Enables NGOs to put
to results pressure on governments
• Accountability to own for delivery
citizens • Enhanced ability to carry
• Builds support for out research
development • Improved accountability of
• Improves harmonisation donor governments for
of donors keeping promises
• Improves accountability
of partner country
governments
• Increases impact of aid
spending by improving
service delivery
• Facilitates research and
learning
• Improves harmonisation • Better harmonisation of
of donor activities NGO-funded activities with
• Increases impact of aid activities funded through
spending ODA
• Improved accountability of
donor governments for
keeping promises
• Improves harmonisation • Better research
• Accountability to own • Improved harmonisation
citizens • Accountability of donors
• Reduced transactions • Easier research and
costs publishing data aggregation
• Opportunities to • Ability to benchmark and
benchmark and compare across donors
compare across donors • Reduced transactions costs
• Greater diversity of
applications to use aid
data
• Enables tracking of • Improved visibility of the
results effectiveness of NGOs
• Reduces corruption where they are used as an
• Greater accountability implementing channel
to taxpayers
• Facilitates lesson
learning
• Opportunities to • Opportunities to
benchmark and benchmark and compare
compare • Information to make the
• Information to make the case for aid
case for aid