On July 13, 2022, the independent watchdog Publish What You Fund released their tenth annual Aid Transparency Index, the only third-party analysis of aid transparency reporting from the world’s largest 50 development agencies and organizations.
The 2022 Aid Transparency Index highlighted the good news that most of the biggest donor organizations and agencies working in the international development sphere are now publishing data in a transparent and comprehensive manner.
Poor performers
However, all of Britain’s government aid agencies were severely downranked in the 2022 index. Following the 2021 drastic reductions to the budget and merger of DfID (Department for International Development) with the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office), the combined aid department now known as the FCDO ranks 16th, having lost 13.5 points.
The 2022 Aid Transparency Index blamed the drop in British agencies’ rankings on a “general deterioration of quality” in the publishing of reports and data about their activities.
“This loss of transparency is a blow both to the communities we work with and the British public,” said Stephanie Draper, the CEO of Bond, the British network of international development organizations.
Other poor performers in the 2022 Aid Transparency Index included The Global Fund, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, JICA (Japan’s state development agency), Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, TiKA (Turkey’s state development agency), MOFAIC (the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) and MOFCOM (China’s Ministry of Commerce) which jointly manages the Belt and Road Initiative with other agencies.
Head of the Class
The star performer of the 2022 Aid Transparency Index was the African Development Bank’s sovereign fund, named as the most transparent aid organization in the world this year, with a score of 98.5 (out of a possible 100).
The African Development Bank’s Sovereign Portfolio ranks first out of 50 global development institutions in Publish What You Fund’s 2022 #AidTransparency Index.
🔗 https://t.co/UwOPNrCg3X #2022Index pic.twitter.com/lhBTY9IUY8
— African Development Bank Group (@AfDB_Group) July 13, 2022
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, responded by saying:
“I am absolutely thrilled that our efforts have been recognized by Publish What You Fund. Our first-place ranking is a testament to the contribution of the more than 2,000 employees in our organization who work tirelessly to advance Africa.”
Other top performers included the International Development Association (part of the World Bank), the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (USA), and three United Nations agencies: UNICEF, UNDP, and UN OCHA.
Other agencies and organizations which showed notable improvements included the AFD (Agence française de développement), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and PEPFAR (USA), the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Development Finance Institutions
This year’s Aid Transparency Index featured a new focus on the activities of multilateral development finance institutions (DFIs), splitting the analysis between DFIs sovereign (public sector) and their non-sovereign (private sector) activities. Prior to this year, all available reporting (including self-reporting) lumped together both sovereign and non-sovereign activities.
The authors of the 2022 Aid Transparency Index noted that there is far greater transparency on reporting from DFIs on their sovereign investments compared to their non-sovereign activities. For example, the African Development Bank’s sovereign fund was rated the most transparent in the world this year (with a score of 98.5), but its non-sovereign activities came in twelfth place (with a score of 78.6). Likewise, the World Bank’s International Development Agency (IDA – which uses member countries’ public funds) ranked far higher than its International Finance Corporation (IFC – funded by the private sector).
Reporting transparency on non-sovereign aid activities is hampered by a belief that publishing data might harm commercial business interests. For example, publishing information about a private sector loan is believed by some that it might reveal important information about the recipient’s market valuation and performance, but the Aid Transparency Index did note that “some stakeholders dispute whether these commercial sensitivities apply in a blanket way” for all non-sovereign development activities.
The 2022 Aid Transparency Index, as a reflection of this schism in reporting transparency, noted that four out of the six sovereign DFI portfolios were ranked in the “very good” category (the highest possible ranking) while all but one of the non-sovereign DFI portfolios were ranked in the bottom three categories.
Overall Trends in ODA Transparency
The overall picture of the 2022 Transparency Index is that transparency scores have dipped slightly from 2020. And while three agencies (TiKA, MOFAIC, and MOFCOM) continue to publish almost no data compatible with IATI (International Aid Transparency Initiative), 80% of the organizations assessed in the 2022 Aid Transparency Index are now publishing standardized information, and 62% are publishing forward planning data. Unfortunately, only 38% of the organizations are publishing information about the results of their investments, and only 34% are publishing information about impact evaluations.
The 2022 Transparency Index also included information about pandemic spending, a large part of which is considered to be Official Development Assistance (ODA) by most countries. A total of $42 billion in pandemic-related commitments was reported globally for 2021, including loans and grants, and a total of $14.8 billion was spent on the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program, most of it on the bulk purchase of vaccines.
This year’s Aid Transparency Index came from analyzing 147,319 donor activities in 2021 that took the form of a total of $221 billion in financial commitments and $154 billion in disbursements and expenditures from 50 aid organizations and agencies, including multilateral institutions and large NGOs. Data was gathered from both IATI reporting as well as OECD CRS information.
Donor agencies and organizations were ranked across 35 indicators in five categories: organizational planning and commitments, finance and budgets, project attributes, joining-up development data, and performance. Each organization’s score was weighted by its 35 indicators along the five categories for a maximum possible score of 100 points.
Prior to publishing, the Aid Transparency Index report was assessed by 32 independent reviewers who work on a voluntary basis, and every organization ranked by the Index was given a chance to respond and update their data prior to the report’s release.
