Govt to launch website on foreign aid

The government is set to roll out a database in October that gives everyone access to information pertaining to the inflow and disbursement of foreign aid, one of the few countries in the world to offer such transparency.

Dubbed the Aid Information Management System (AIMS), the database will increase aid transparency, strengthen accountability, improve aid coordination and enable more efficient aid management, said Md Mejbahuddin, secretary of the Economic Relations Division.

The disclosure came at yesterday's plenary meeting of the Local Consultative Group held at the NEC Conference Room in the capital. AIMS will also help in coordination between the government and the development partners, as they will have a single source for all data related to aid in Bangladesh, he said.

“This will also enable us to standardise reporting, improve reliability and make the collected data easily accessible to all.”

ERD has already sent out a formal request to donors to enter data in AIMS on their ongoing projects.

A number of development partners including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the United Nations, the European Union and Japan International Cooperation Agency have already done so.

Also at yesterday's meeting, the ERD unveiled a roadmap for the next Joint Cooperation Strategy, to be signed next year between the government and its development partners for the period of 2015 to 2020.

The planned JCS, which is being formulated by the ERD, will be aligned with the government seventh Five Year Plan to ensure appropriate support in implementing it, Mejbahuddin said.

It will also focus on achieving the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals, while also emphasising on the quality of aid rather than the quantity.

The scope for a greater role of the private sector in development cooperation will also be explored, while focusing on other source of development financing including remittances, domestic resources. 

Furthermore, it will provide additional space for enhanced cooperation with the emerging donors, while also facilitating the policy platform for increased voice of civil society organisations.

The planned approach and development strategy of the country's upcoming Five-Year Plan was also shared at the meeting, where the progress made by the planning ministry in streamlining the government's project approval process was reviewed as well.

The meeting also formally announced Janina Jaruzelski, mission director of USAID in Bangladesh, as the new LCG plenary co-chair.

 Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Neal Walker also spoke.