This is a joint-post with Will McKitterick.
Earlier this week, we received big news on the transparency front. The Gates Foundation, the largest philanthropic foundation in the aid business, made the bold decision to publish its aid information to the International Aid Transparency Initiative. In terms of ODA, the foundation represents a sizable portion of the worldwide aid picture (disbursing roughly $2.6 billion in 20111) that will soon be publicly available for all to see.
Here at CGD, we’ve been bullish about aid transparency for some time. As my colleague Owen Barder points out here, aid transparency is more than a symbolic gesture of good aid stewardship. It’s a tool for donors, policymakers, taxpayers, researchers, and recipients alike to ensure scarce taxpayer resources are used more efficiently and effectively. That’s why my colleague Kim Elliott has been pushing for Gates to join IATI for some time given its importance as a major donor in the agricultural sector.2
Aid transparency in the US development community remains a work in progress. We’re still waiting on the US government to turn its cache of aid data into a user-friendly interface for its many stakeholders. This also means adding USAID’s implementing partners to the mix so we can understand where and how assistance dollars are flowing down the delivery chain. But have a powerhouse like Gates join the IATI movement lends further credibility to the initiative, which hopefully will inspire and push other others to follow suit. Who knows, maybe some of Gates US-based grantees missing from IATI will feel inspired to publish next.
1. According to 2011 OECD-DAC data.2.According to OECD-DAC data, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was the sixth largest agricultural aid donor in 2011.
