The movement for aid transparency has led to an increased amount of data provided by aid agencies, yet it isn’t data that is always easy for citizens to access and act on. Our recent research encourages aid agencies to publish more accessible information on their actual websites, in an effort to galvanize taxpayer support for aid and development programs.
Since the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008, aid agencies have come under increasing pressure to be transparent about how and where they spend aid money. The most visible is the regular publication of the Aid Transparency Index by the United Kingdom-based NGO Publish What You Fund. This has helped put aid transparency on the agenda and establish strong norms around aid transparency. But a piece of the puzzle is still missing: How transparent are aid agencies to their taxpayers?
Government transparency and the open government movement are about increasing citizens' access to information in order to improve government accountability and increase public trust. Yet, existing measures of transparency focus on how much data is uploaded to international databases, not how easy to view and use that data then is, nor how much it is in fact being accessed and acted on.
About the authors
Bernhard Reinsbergb_reinsberg
Bernhard Reinsberg is a professor of international political economy and development at the University of Glasgow and a research associate in political economy at the Centre for Business Research of the University of Cambridge. His research is on the funding, politics, and effectiveness of international development cooperation.
Haley J. Swedlund
Haley J. Swedlund, Ph.D., is associate professor at the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management in the Department of Political Science at Radboud University. Her research focuses on the role of international stakeholders in the global south. She is the author of “The Development Dance: How Donors and Recipients Negotiate the Delivery of Aid” (Cornell University Press, 2017).
