Access Info is part of a global campaign to promote transparency of international aid. We started researching this field in 2007 and in 2008, alongside Tiri, we helped to launch the Publish What You Fund initiative. Access Info helped draft a set of principles, the Aid Transparency Principles and has conducted monitoring of donor government transparency. We also conduct training and provide assistance to civil society organisations in developing countries who are trying to get more information about international aid flows.

file_doc The Aid Transparency Principles (Draft for Consultation)

file_pdf The Aid Transparency Principles (Draft for Consultation)

Every year the world’s richest countries spend millions of taxpayers’ money on helping people in the world’s poorest countries get out of poverty. This international aid money is spent on food, on schools and hospitals, and on reforming systems of government. The goal is to fight poverty and promote sustainable development. There is much debate over how effectively this money is spent, but without full transparency, it is impossible for members of the public to judge.

Without donor transparency corruption will continue to plague the spending of aid funds. Without information it’s impossible for people living in developing countries to have a say in how their and their children’s futures are being decided.

To achieve greater transprency of aid there is a need for common access to information standards similar to those developed in other sectors, such as for activity which impacts on the environment for example. Access Info is campaigning for donor countries to take the lead in opening up the aid world and fulfilling the commitments made under various inter-governmental declarations, most recently the Accra Agenda for Action adopted in September 2008, in which donor governments pledged: “We will make aid more transparent.”