As things stand, we will not be running the 2026 Aid Transparency Index. Not because it isn’t needed. Not because it isn’t effective. But because, in spite of our best efforts, we haven’t been able to secure the funding for it.
This is not a trivial loss. The Aid Transparency Index has been the single most powerful mechanism driving improvements in the quantity and quality of aid data that is published to the International Aid Transparency Initiative, or IATI, Standard. Since 2012, every two years, it has independently assessed and ranked the transparency of the world’s 50 largest aid agencies — organizations responsible for 92% of all spending published in IATI, amounting to $237 billion in 2023 alone.
The index works because it shapes agency behavior. It has encouraged reluctant agencies to start publishing data; motivated those already engaged to improve data quantity and quality; and provided a crucial, independent check on the state of global aid transparency.
About the author
Gary Forster
Gary Forster is CEO at Publish What You Fund. He joined Publish What You Fund in 2018 after serving as CEO of Transaid. With a background in logistics at Procter & Gamble and a public health qualification from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, he has designed and evaluated health programs across sub-Saharan Africa. Until recently, he chaired the Charity Finance Group in the U.K.
