Transparency of Development Aid (FR0032)

Improving transparency in public development aid
Challenges
The conclusions reached by the 2011 Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness call on donor countries to increase traceability and efficacy of development aid. For France, transparency in public aid, combined with its better foreseeability, meets a democratic need for accountability, understanding and legitimacy of French development cooperation policies. Such transparency is also beneficial as it improves aid effectiveness and limits cases of corruption.
Aims
Improving accessibility of data on public development aid and widening the scope of published data (geographical areas, players, etc.)
The Interministerial Committee meeting of 30 November 2016 highlighted France’s commitment to “improving the transparency and accountability of French aid” (Focus V).
Information on operational deployment of aid is made available systematically in the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) managed by the OECD. Budgetary information and public development aid performance indicators may be consulted on the performance- publique.budget.gouv.fr platform.
In order to facilitate reuse, raw data on Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and Agence française de développement (AFD) development projects are openly published on the data.gouv.fr platform as well as on a single platform (http://www.transparence- aide.gouv.fr/), proactively compared with data published by the OECD.
This single platform provides better clarity of data, enabling users to view projects implemented by France on a map via a geolocation tool. Users can also find each project’s characteristics (implementation date, description, type of aid and financial data) on the site.
France is therefore continuing its efforts and making further progress with regard to transparency and accountability in its development and international solidarity policy, in order to meet the highest standards, both in the Development Aid Committee and for other initiatives, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in particular.
Complementing reports on accountability and information on France’s action with regard to aid, the following actions are proposed:
widening the scope of data currently published;
France National action plan – 2018-2020
publishing new data associated with transparency in public development aid;
improving clarity of information on transparency in public development aid.
The road map in detail
ACTIONS

TIMESCALE

Extending publication of data on public development aid to new geographical areas (MEAE)
S1 2019 Publishing data on public development aid provided by new players such as Proparco (AFD)
S2 2019
Merging publication of data on a single platform
S2 2018
Publishing data on the impact and/or results of AFD projects
S2 2018
Continuing to provide the OECD’s Development Aid Committee with data for publication of quality data in compliance with the OECD’s latest standards S2 2018-S1 2019

3. Improving transparency in public development aid

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

The conclusions reached by the 2011 Busan High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness call on donor countries to increase traceability and efficacy of development aid. For France, transparency in public aid, combined with its better foreseeability, meets a democratic need for accountability, understanding and legitimacy of French development cooperation policies. Such transparency is also beneficial as it improves aid effectiveness and limits cases of corruption.

The Interministerial Committee meeting of 30 November 2016 highlighted France’s commitment to “improving the transparency and accountability of French aid” (Focus V).

Information on operational deployment of aid is made available systematically in the Creditor Reporting System (CRS) managed by the OECD. Budgetary information and public development aid performance indicators may be consulted on the performance- publique.budget.gouv.fr platform.

In order to facilitate reuse, raw data on Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and Agence française de développement (AFD) development projects are openly published on the data.gouv.fr platform as well as on a single platform (http://www.transparence- aide.gouv.fr/), proactively compared with data published by the OECD.

This single platform provides better clarity of data, enabling users to view projects implemented by France on a map via a geolocation tool. Users can also find each project’s characteristics (implementation date, description, type of aid and financial data) on the site.

France is therefore continuing its efforts and making further progress with regard to transparency and accountability in its development and international solidarity policy, in order to meet the highest standards, both in the Development Aid Committee and for other initiatives, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in particular.

Complementing reports on accountability and information on France’s action with regard to aid, the following actions are proposed:

• widening the scope of data currently published;
• publishing new data associated with transparency in public development aid;
• improving clarity of information on transparency in public development aid. [16]

Milestones

3.1 Extending publication of data on public development aid to new geographical areas (MEAE)

3.2 Publishing data on public development aid provided by new players such as Proparco (AFD)

3.3 Merging publication of data on a single platform

3.4 Publishing data on the impact and/or results of AFD projects

3.5 Continuing to provide the OECD’s Development Aid Committee with data for publication of quality data in compliance with the OECD’s latest standards

Start Date: 2019

End Date: 2020

Context and Objectives

At the 2011 Busan summit on aid effectiveness, the French government committed to make information about its development aid projects open and accessible by 2015. France has since then made several commitments about the transparency of development aid, [17] including such commitments in the framework of its 2015–2017 OGP action plan.

The last IRM end-of-term report [18] indicated that the French government has made significant efforts to improve transparency. It has also made significant efforts to facilitate access to information regarding international development aid, largely through the centralization of data. Among the three agencies that disburse development funds, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has made significant improvement, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the Ministry of Economy and Finance lagged behind.

Publish What You Fund placed the AFD and MEAE in the “fair” category of its 2018 Aid Transparency Index. [19] The organization emphasized the agencies needed to improve the comprehensiveness of data published and publish financial and budgetary data. Such data could include disaggregated budgets and project budgets, as well as performance-related information. Publish What You Fund also noted the agencies should encourage the reuse of the data they publish.

This commitment aimed to further improve access to information regarding funding and implementation of development aid projects. It fostered the publication of data regarding additional recipient countries and data from other government agencies (Proparco). It also plans to publish information about the results and impact of development projects. The commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information, given that it requires the publication of new data.

Overall, the commitment is verifiable. However, some additional information would have been useful for future assessment. Such information includes details about specific geographical zones for which data should be published and a more detailed list of new agencies whose data should be opened. Also helpful would be information providing more clarity about the data to be published by the AFD—the current phrasing with “and/or” is confusing. Moreover, an indication of the frequency of publication would have been a valuable addition.

This initiative could have a moderate impact. If fully implemented, the commitment would provide new information on activities in regions not yet covered by the transparency policy, on activities of agencies that play an important role in France’s development program. These agencies include Proparco, which is in charge of programs in the private sector. The commitment would also provide information on additional phases of development projects, such as impact assessments.

However, none of the milestones concern the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which is indicated as an implementing agency and was deemed the worst performer in the last evaluation report. The IRM researcher questions the relevance of including Milestone 3.3 regarding publication on a unique platform, since this had already been done within the framework of the 2015–2017 action plan. The same applies to Milestone 3.5 regarding the information flow to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Aid Committee, since this reflects a previous agreement with another organization outside OGP.

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends that the commitment be carried forward in the next action plan. The following actions could be considered:

• The scope of information published could be broadened to financial and budgetary data, including disaggregated budgets, project budgets, and performance-related information.
• The Ministry of Economy and Finance could be explicitly included in the commitment text.
• Documentation could be prepared to better inform the public and encourage the reuse of data.
• The government could develop a function that allows the public to ask questions and make it more visible on the open data platform.

3. Improving transparency in public development aid

Completion: Substantial

According to the government self-assessment, [xxii] official development aid data published extended from 36 to 47 countries and the platform publishes information about Proparco [xxiii] projects since 2019. The information published regarding project impact and result is still limited to project objectives at best. The government self-assessment indicated that the publication of impact data is currently under discussion. Publish What You Fund notes that the MEAE (foreign affairs) and the AFD (development agency) did not publish certain important data such as tender documents or current audit reports. [xxiv] The publication of data through single platform (opendata.afd.fr) had already been achieved in the 2015-2017 OGP action plan.