Can a tool to map aid budgets be used to keep tabs on the SDGs?

As aid groups search for ways to keep countries accountable for the ambitious sustainable development goals, some are pointing to existing mechanisms, like cost implementation plans, to guide aid budgets and track country progress.

Costed implementation plans are planning and management tools — including cost estimates for multiyear action plans — for achieving development goals. Developed originally as a road map for countries as they budgeted for family planning and reproductive health targets, aid organizations like FHI 360 and Population Action International have most recently been both helping country governments develop their CIPs and using CIPs to guide their own advocacy strategies.

In the case of FHI 360, which often guides governments in the creation of CIPs, the plans reveal financing gaps in a country’s aid strategy and provide a country-driven mechanism for suggesting improvements, according to Christine Lasway, a senior technical adviser at the U.S.-based nonprofit.