UK'S DFID and World Bank top scores; Malta the worst
WASHINGTON, DC (TrustLaw)--Openness about how official development aid is spent improved in 2012, although the United States performed relatively poorly compared with other major donors, an advocacy group said on Monday.
The Transparency Aid Index climbed to 41 percent from 34 percent in 2011. The index, compiled by Publish What You Fund: The Global Campaign for Aid Transparency, measures the performance of 72 governments and international aid agencies on their adherence to global standards for public disclosure of how the roughly half trillion dollars handed out each year in aid money are spent as a way to hold governments accountable on their effectiveness.
Government aid agencies in the United States averaged 44.5 percent, above the global average for transparency but behind other large donors such as the European Commission, the World Bank, Sweden and Japan, it said. The Department of Defense was the worst U.S. performer scoring 23 percent, while the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which gives grants to meet the United Nations development goals, ranked best in the U.S. at 70 percent.
David Hall-Matthews, Director of Publish What You Fund, called on the United States to set an example by fully implementing the International Aid Transparency Initiative, drawn up in 2008 signed by the U.S. last year.
“As the world’s largest and arguably most influential donor, the U.S. plays a critical role in increasing transparency in foreign assistance,” Hall-Matthews said.
“The U.S. has the chance to be a leader in aid transparency. The benefits are enormous – better decision making by both donors and recipients, identification of waste or misuse of precious aid, reduction in reporting costs and efforts, and increased coordination and accountability.”
U.S. aid agencies had no immediate comment.
The transparency initiative, however, is clearly having an impact. For the first time, two agencies were ranked as ‘Good’ performers -- the U.K. Department of International Development scored 91 percent out of a perfect score of 100, up from 63 the previous year, and the World Bank’s International Development Association climbed 10 points to score 88 percent.
Thirteen governments and agencies were ranked as ‘Fair’ in 2012, up from nine the prior year. The number ranked ‘Very Poor’ declined to 12 from 15. These included China which slipped backward to 2 from 4 and Malta which remained at the very bottom scoring zero.
This is the third year the rankings have been compiled by Publish What You Pay, the global campaign advocating for a significant increase in the timely and comprehensive publication of aid data, in a format that is comparable with other grants. So far 33 donors representing 75 percent of official development finance, which totaled $557 billion in 2010, have signed the transparency initiative.
ONE, the U.K. global advocacy group that focuses on fighting extreme poverty, welcomed the improvements as a way for citizens to track money every step of the way to ensure it is directly helping the neediest. Adrian Lovett, ONE executive director, urged governments in a time of belt-tightening, especially in Europe, to improve their accountability.
“At a time when all public spending is rightly under close scrutiny, transparency is vital to deliver smart and effective aid,” he said.
While the UK and EU have improved, others European countries including France and Germany “need to take a hard look at this report and act fast to improve,” he said. France ranked at 18 and Germany at 33.
(Editing by Lisa Anderson)
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