Strengthening Transparency of International Aid (UK0108)

Our Commitment

Strengthening of transparency and accountability of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Our Analysis

Development of the aid transparency commitment was informed through close collaboration between government and civil society including four working group meetings. The working group considered previous lessons learned from the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) UK Co-Creation Brief 2023 as well as reflecting upon the development and delivery of the Fifth National Action Plan aid transparency commitment. Detailed analysis of each relevant milestone under the Fifth National Action Plan was undertaken to identify opportunities for development. Positive progress was noted on engagement with independent reviews and coordination with other International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) donor publishers whilst further opportunities were identified regarding data quality and technical feedback. The government-civil society working group also considered relevant submissions from the open call for ideas from both government and civil society, identifying challenges to be addressed and alignment in potential solutions. Finally, the government-civil society working group considered relevant findings and recommendations from independent assessments of aid transparency including the 2020 review of ten UK government ODA-spending departments as well as the 2022 global Aid Transparency Index and the 2023 Development Finance Institution (DFI) Transparency Index. Collectively, these materials provided the basis for discussion within the government-civil society working group and overall co-creation of the commitment.

The Problem

Aid transparency ensures accountability to taxpayers whilst empowering those in receipt of aid and strengthening coordination across development actors, ultimately enabling more effective aid delivery. The UK has long set a high standard for transparency of ODA and its commitment to transparency is reflected in UK policy including through the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy and the International Development Strategy (IDS). Notable issues in transparency and accountability across the international development sector include: ● Changes in government department structures: Following the establishment of the FCDO, legacy IT systems required integration. This resulted in a temporary pause in FCDO publication to IATI. The split in February 2023 of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will similarly require development of aid transparency processes across its successor departments. ● Assessments and Accountability: Whilst the IDS is a whole of government approach to international development, the FCDO is the only UK government department that will be assessed in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index. The IDS also sets out the UK government’s approach to working more with the private sector and investors to mobilise new, innovative investments. British International Investment (BII) came 12th from 21 non-sovereign DFIs assessed in the 2023 DFI Transparency Index. ● Data Use: As well as regular publishing of high-quality aid data by development actors, users (and potential users) of aid data need to be sufficiently aware of, and have the necessary capacity to use, published information effectively. ● IATI Transition: IATI recently established a new Secretariat. Whilst continuity of IATI services was maintained throughout this process, IATI strategic developments have progressed more slowly as a result of the transition.

Our Solutions

The proposed solutions reaffirm the UK government’s commitment to aid transparency across ODA-spending departments and build upon the success and progress against the Fifth National Action Plan’s aid transparency commitment. The solutions set out FCDO’s ambition for aid transparency as a department, with a focus on strengthening the quality and timeliness of aid transparency data to better support all stakeholders. The solutions also ensure that FCDO continues to have meaningful, inclusive, and deliberative engagement with civil society on aid transparency, responding to feedback from data users as well as working towards best publishing practices and improving data use globally. Beyond FCDO, the solutions focus on continued progress for other ODA-spending departments through maintained standards, regular cross-government engagement and an independent assessment. Furthermore, they set out the UK government’s commitment to encouraging aid transparency developments across wider stakeholders including other donors internationally and the private sector. Finally, the solutions champion data use internationally – building on FCDO’s commitment in its response to the 2022 Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) review of UK aid transparency. This commitment is relevant to the OGP values of transparency and public accountability as it ensures accessible data on UK ODA, helping demonstrate to the public how UK aid is spent and to whom taxpayers’ money is given. Transparent aid data, published to the IATI Standard, also supports public accountability by tracking delivery across development actors and monitoring progress towards aid policy priorities. Additionally, the commitment will support civic participation by providing opportunities for both scrutiny of ODA spend and feedback on the UK’s approach to aid transparency.

Our Deliverables (Deliverable | Expected outputs | Expected completion date | Stakeholders)

Deliverable One: FCDO aid data quality | Continued improvements of FCDO aid data quality | By end of 2025 | FCDO

Deliverable Two: FCDO aid data timeliness | Continued improvements of FCDO aid data timeliness | By end of 2025 | FCDO

Deliverable Three: Aid transparency across UK ODA- spending government departments | Continued aid transparency improvements across UK ODA-spending government departments | By end of 2025 | UK Government

Deliverable Four: Stakeholder engagement | Strengthened engagement with IATI data users | By end of 2025 | FCDO, Civil society

Deliverable Five: UK leadership on aid transparency | Continued championing of aid transparency improvements globally | By end of 2025 | FCDO, IATI, Donor publishers

Our Milestones (Milestone | Expected outputs | Expected completion date | Stakeholders)

Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO will achieve ‘Very good’ in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index. | - FCDO score of at least 80% in 2024 Aid Transparency Index | August 2024 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO to respond to 2024 Aid Transparency Index including consideration of which recommendations it can address and deliver. | - Statement from FCDO on GOV.UK responding to results of 2024 Aid Transparency Index | Within 6 weeks of publication of 2024 Aid Transparency Index | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO to improve quality of programme and project descriptions. | - FCDO to improve its score for ‘Project attributes – Description’ in 2024 Aid Transparency Index - FCDO to seek feedback from civil society on its project descriptions and relevant internal guidance | August 2024 By December 2024 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO to be consistently (for at least 10 out of 12 months each year), publishing data one month in arrears. | - Timely data available through IATI and DevTracker | By end of 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO publishes its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) in a timely manner. | - ARA 2023-2024 published on GOV.UK by end of July 2024 - ARA 2024-2025 published on GOV.UK by end of July 2025 | July 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO publishes its official Statistics on International Development (SID) report in a timely manner. | - Final SID 2023 to be published by the end of Autumn 2024 - Final SID 2024 to be published in Autumn 2025 | Autumn 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO updates its country development summaries in a timely manner. | - Country summaries updated on GOV.UK by March 2025 | By March 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Three, government departments assessed in the 2025 UK Aid Transparency Review to respond to the Review including consideration of which recommendations it can address and deliver. | - Written response shared with civil society on findings from 2025 UK Aid Transparency Review | By end of 2025 | ODA-spending departments

Linked to Deliverable Three, the HMG Transparency Community of Practice to meet annually to review strategic priorities on transparency. | - Two in-person events for Transparency Community of Practice | By end of 2025 | ODA-spending departments

Linked to Deliverable Four, FCDO to engage regularly with civil society to explore user feedback and technical issues as well as review progress against recommendations from the 2022 ICAI review of UK aid transparency. | - Quarterly meetings with civil society -Joint FCDO- Bond User research workshop to identify potential DevTracker developments - Joint FCDO- Bond workshop on data use focused on use cases and experiences from local NGOs and partner country governments | By end of 2025 | FCDO, ODA- spending departments, Civil society

Linked to Deliverable Four, FCDO to provide in-country training on IATI data use. | - Training provided to at least 2 country posts including meetings with local CSOs to discuss IATI data use | By end of 2025 | FCDO, Civil society

Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to support the launch of a BII Transparency Roadmap – setting out actions BII will take to increase the amount of information it makes public with the ambition of being a leader on transparency amongst bilateral DFIs. | - FCDO to regularly engage with BII on its approach to transparency with the intention of increasing its transparency as measured by external indices over time | By end of 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to participate as IATI member in review of IATI Strategic Plan. | - Contributions through relevant forums on IATI Strategic Plan | By end of 2025 | FCDO

Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to engage with other IATI donor publishers to share good practices on data quality and data use. | - At least 4 meetings with relevant IATI donors - Active involvement in relevant IATI working groups | By end of 2025 | FCDO