AIMS for aid transparency: Some pertinent thoughts
Aid transparency climbed high up the international agenda at the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2008 in Accra. Instilling aid transparency is a prerequisite for holding development actors, governments, and non-government organisations (NGOs) accountable for their role in the management of aid and its impact in improving the lives of the Bangladeshi people. When developing country governments receive more transparent information on aid flows in their country, it allows them to manage and coordinate aid more easily. They can better ensure that aid is actually being used to address the most pressing national needs. Citizens around the globe too, have the right to know which aid their governments is giving or receiving and whether that aid is being used well. Thus, aid transparency is crucial for a more meaningful and targeted use of aid.
In Accra, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) was launched to make information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand. A voluntary group of donors, developing countries and civil society organisations committed to work together to develop a common and open standard for the publication of aid information -- the “IATI Standard.” Donors implement IATI by publishing their aid information following agreed common definitions, in IATI's agreed common electronic format. This makes it easier to access, compare and eventually exchange information on aid from organisations across the globe. IATI is jointly chaired by the Netherlands and Bangladesh, illustrating how Bangladesh stands at the frontline of the international debate on how to make more out of development partnerships. Today, more than 280 countries, UN agencies, multilateral organisations and NGOs have started using the IATI standard. More than 20 partner countries, including Bangladesh, have endorsed IATI. This is making international development cooperation increasingly transparent.
UNDP began publishing its aid data according to the IATI standards in 2011. UNDP pioneered a user-friendly portal (open.undp.org) to publish data for more than 10,000 UNDP projects in 177 countries and territories for public access. For this initiative and for the quality of data, this year, the Aid Transparency Index ranked UNDP as the most transparent development agency in the world. This seriousness about transparency drives our work supported by several other development agencies in Bangladesh to promote aid transparency in the country.
Aid transparency in Bangladesh
UNDP in Bangladesh, together with Denmark, Australia and the UK, has provided support to the government, to create the government's first online aid information management (AIMS - aims.erd.gov.bd). This is a public online database allowing the donors and the government to exchange information on aid flows. This will also be an archive of all donor funded projects with financial and non-financial data. The data will be categorised by specific donor, implementing agencies, economic sector or by geographic locations for easy referencing.
The objective is to increase aid transparency in order to strengthen the accountability of all development actors such as development partners, government agencies and implementing agencies. AIMS will also improve the coordination of these stakeholders and help them to closely contribute to national priorities. Ultimately better coordination and alignment will allow more efficient aid management to achieve best possible results from the available resources.
At the same time, the system strengthens national capacity for management of aid and development assistance. Notably, this is one of the requirements too to enable Bangladesh to access newer financing sources such as the Green Climate Fund. Like most funds, this emerging funding mechanism requires the recipient nation to manage the fund in a transparent manner. From that perspective, AIMS is an important first step for Bangladesh to benefit from additional resources which the country critically needs to address the impact of climate change.
Having said that, I must remind that designing an aid information system is probably the easiest part of the establishing a transparent aid system in a country. It is important that the data captured by AIMS are used in decision making and reflected in national policies. Additional strategies, such decentralised participatory monitoring of development projects, close parliamentary oversight, awareness and engagement of media and civil society in the process are factors that determine the overall success of AIMS.
But, today is not the day to discuss the challenges. Today, the Ministry of Finance is set to launch the AIMS. Hence, today is the day to commend the ministry for taking a giant leap forward to the realisation of more transparent development cooperation in Bangladesh. Congratulations!
The writer is Country Director of UNDP in Bangladesh.
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