* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Data must be available and user-friendly so that developing countries can follow the money, strengthen accountability and deliver improved development results
The G8 world leaders’ summit at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, on June 17 and 18 is a huge opportunity to put transparency and accountability at the heart of the global development agenda. They will hold important preparatory meetings in London two days before on Saturday June 15th.
The UK government has shown great leadership in setting a groundbreaking agenda on trade, tax and transparency, with Prime Minister David Cameron staking his credibility on a successful outcome. But with only a few days to go until the summit, it remains unclear whether the ambitious rhetoric will be turned into real political commitment and action.
ONE has been advocating for the G8 to unleash a “transparency revolution” so that African citizens have the information they need to follow the money, to hold their governments and others to account in order that resources are used to deliver real results in the fight against poverty, disease, hunger and malnutrition.
A transparency revolution requires three things: Action to make data available; action to make that data user-friendly; and action to ensure that the data can be used effectively.
What does this require from the G8?
Action to make data available: ONE is calling on G8 leaders to improve tax transparency and crack down on the use of secret companies so that developing countries can retain the resources they need to invest in poverty reduction.
On tax transparency, there has been some good progress, but the UK needs to make sure that its tax havens are brought into the fold and to ensure that the system agreed for tax transparency works for developing countries.
On secret companies the next few days are crucial. If France and the UK can work with Germany to craft a united European front, Canada and the United States will have to decide whether to support a progressive agenda, or join Japan and Russia in shrinking from these common-sense reforms.
As a champion of transparency, the U.S. should signal its support for G8 action, allowing other countries to make progress even if the U.S. is not itself able to commit to public disclosure of information about company ownership.
ONE has also been calling on G8 leaders to put in place rules that will require their oil, gas and mining companies to publish what they pay to governments for access to their natural resources.
The U.S. and the EU members of the G8 (France, Germany, Italy, UK) are in a good place, having passed legislation to make this happen - subject to a legal challenge in the U.S by the American Petroleum Institute being defeated. With little expected from Japan or Russia, the focus has been on Canada, which announced on June 12 that it will introduce a mandatory reporting regime. To build on commitments made by the EU, the US and Canada to implement mandatory reporting, the G8 should signal its commitment to work with G20 and other partners to develop a global standard.
Action to make data user-friendly and to boost aid transparency: ONE expects the G8 to launch an Open Data Charter. This will help to make government data available in open formats so people can use it to follow the money from oil revenues, through budget processes, to achieving results. This is good news, but we have questions as to whether the charter will be sufficiently ambitious and relevant to developing countries.
Exemplifying why making data open matters, we are keen to see France, Italy and Japan announce their intention to implement the International Aid Transparency Initiative, with the G8 as a whole renewing its commitment to rapid implementation.
Action to make sure that data can be used effectively: ONE is calling for G8 and African governments to launch a number of “Transparency Partnerships”, with the support of civil society and the private sector, so that citizens and accountability institutions in developing countries can use data to follow the money, strengthen accountability and deliver improved development results.
The partnerships should also have space for important initiatives, which while not at the top of the G8 agenda, are crucial if transparency is to translate into improved progress on poverty reduction (e.g., Open and Better Contracting and the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative).
To ensure that these partnerships work effectively, the G8 should announce additional investment in the capacity of citizens’ groups and accountability institutions to use the data unleashed by the transparency revolution to improve decision-making and to hold governments and companies to account.
Backing and shaping the transparency revolution?
The UK government should be congratulated for its ambition in setting out a groundbreaking agenda on transparency, which aims to empower people with the information they need to follow the money and to drive results. But the hard work must continue right up to the summit itself. The UK government must continue to lobby its G8 partners, with no let up in pace or decrease in ambition. G8 partners must decide where they want to be - backing and shaping the transparency revolution or resisting the tide of history.
Alan Hudson is the policy director for transparency and accountability at ONE. He leads the organisation’s efforts to empower people with the information they need to hold their governments to account, so that resources are used effectively to fight poverty and preventable diseases, rather than squandered and lost to corruption.
