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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Blog
Posts Tagged: TransparencyU.S. Foreign Assistance Dashboard: Show Me the Data!November 22, 2011Posted by Will McKitterick in Aid Effectiveness, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Aid Effectiveness, Foreign Assistance Dashboard, Transparency
Yesterday, I was happy to see the MCC finally publish aid data to the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, the government’s one-stop-shop for foreign assistance budget and appropriations information. But upon further examination of the website, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated when I noticed the dearth of new data available in the tool. Nearly a year has passed since the Dashboard was launched in December 2010, and the U.S. government has yet to come up with the majority of its promised haul of agency data. Rolled out a day after the QDDR, Dashboard was a response to calls for greater transparency and accountability in government and development agencies. It aims to incorporate all U.S. government foreign assistance budget planning, financial program, and performance data in an easily accessible web format, allowing users to track, analyze, and monitor aid investments overtime. The website’s user-friendly graphics allow viewers to peruse through data displayed by country, sector, and year and generate their own tables through manual queries as well as download machine-readable data sets. Inspired by principles embraced in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the Accra Agenda for Action, and President Obama’s Open Government Initiative, the Dashboard was widely heralded as an important step toward establishing a new system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration for monitoring U.S. foreign assistance. 4 Comments »What Would Google Do? (Donor Cooperation Edition)November 2, 2011Posted by Owen Barder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Foreign Assistance Dashboard, Transparency, USAID
It is now clear that donor coordination meetings are not the answer to making aid more effective, and donors such as USAID are becoming interested in a more decentralized ‘Google Maps’ approach to aid coordination, facilitating well-informed decisions by people on the ground. For this to work, donors need to publish detailed project level information in an open, reusable, internationally consistent data format. Some donors are not yet showing the necessary resolve. We now know that the development system has met just one of the 13 targets it set in 2005 for making aid more effective. That is not surprising: the problems diagnosed in the Paris Declaration are real and important, but the solutions that have been pursued in its name have not been practical. There are better ways to achieve the aid effectiveness which the Paris Declaration envisages. Read More… 9 Comments »Holbrooke Responds to Kerry on Pakistan: More Transparency and Policy Focus, but Development Strategy MissingJuly 7, 2010Posted by Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, Transparency
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke recently sent a letter responding to Senator Kerry’s concerns about U.S. aid in Pakistan. Overall, I was pleased to see Holbrooke’s commitment to share more information on the USAID and embassy websites—something Senator Kerry and CGD president Nancy Birdsall both encouraged – and his focus on policy reforms and learning from past donor experience. However, I wish he would have been more explicit in clarifying the long-term objective of the U.S. aid program. Comment »Enhancing the Transparency of U.S. Aid to Pakistan: It Starts with a ClickJuly 7, 2010Posted by Molly Kinder in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, Transparency, U.S. Department of State, USAID
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai. Everyone (John Kerry, Richard Lugar, Richard Holbrooke, and, yes, CGD’s own Nancy Birdsall) agrees our aid program in Pakistan needs to be more transparent. Transparent aid can help to counter the widespread mistrust and misinformation about U.S. practices, and could also allow Pakistani civil society to play a role in monitoring how governments and NGOs spend money. On the other hand, the status quo—a dearth of publicly accessible information on program objectives and spending — “creates confusion and unnecessary speculation in Pakistan,” as Senator Kerry put it, “and limits the potential of the policy community and allies at home.” Read More… 1 Comment »A “New Day” for U.S.-Pakistan Relations: Now Here Is the WayApril 5, 2010Posted by Molly Kinder in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: Pakistan, Transparency
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai. Even in the wake of a successful U.S.-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue that saw significant agreement on what U.S. development aid to Pakistan should finance, key questions remain on how this aid should be delivered. Last week, CGD president Nancy Birdsall issued an open letter that makes four recommendations on how the United States can deliver large amounts of aid effectively in Pakistan. Read More… Comment »MCA Monitor Field Report: Burkina FasoAugust 6, 2009Posted by Sheila Herrling in MCA/MCC, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Tags: MCA/MCC, TransparencyI am delighted to post our latest Report from the Field where Rebecca Schutte examines the implementation successes and challenges of the MCC’s Threshold and Compact Programs in Burkina Faso. Enjoy. 2 Comments »
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