Member countries of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development need to bring more transparency on the table. But how?
Speaking at a London event April 25, Brian Atwood said the current challenge is to make information on development investments available in a “digestible form.” The OECD-DAC chair set two objectives for the committee to move transparency forward.
First, the DAC Creditor Reporting System needs to expand the number of countries providing data. It should add more information on development-related but nonofficial development assistance flows, and disaggregate data by markers to better understand how donors are spending their money.
Second, DAC member countries should implement a common, open standard for electronic publication of “timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information” on money provided via development cooperation that builds on systems such as that of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and DAC’s CRS.
Atwood said developing and putting these two systems together would serve the development effectiveness agenda better. He said both organizations’ technical teams are already working on the process and are “making good progress.”
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