aidinfo.org

Reflections on Busan

Judith Randel — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:39:13 +0000

As the dust settles on HLF4 in Busan, it’s a good time to reflect on what’s been achieved on aid transparency in the three years since the previous HLF in Accra.The first thing that struck us in Busan is that transparency has risen to the top of the political agenda, accompanied by a good understanding of the importance of promoting common standards for the publication of information, and of providing aid information that is user-centric rather than provider-focussed.We were encouraged that a number of speakers, including Denmark’s new Minister for Development Cooperation, Christian Friis Bach, recognised that improving access to information has the power to transform societies. And others, like IFRC’s Mukesh Kapila, expressed frustration with the pace of change and the need for more realistic and solid data and statistics.There was also widespread recognition of the need to view aid alongside all of the other available resources for poverty reduction, and to focus on its unique contribution within that wider context. It is clear that many of the old modalities for delivering aid are no longer pre-eminent – what President Kagame referred to as ‘structural and attitude related barriers’. The modern world is one where data and information are more accessible, where there are many more actors, often supporting development in different ways, and where there is growing respect for country ownership, not just as a matter of principle, but because it’s much more likely to be effective as Raj Shah, USAID Administrator said, moving from being a provider or assistance to being a partner in solving problems.It is clear that the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) has gained widespread recognition. Five new signatories announced their intention to join IATI during HLF4, including the US and Canada, and we also heard expressions of interest from NGOs, CSOs and private sector actors. In fact I was standing in the Starbucks queue, talking to someone from Canada that I had never met before and congratulating him on Canada joining IATI, only for him to say that his agency, UNCDF, was also in the process of signing up. What was also interesting was the range of organisations from the private sector to CSOs to researchers who could see the potential for a common standard on resource information.The fact that IATI signatories now represent over 75% of global ODA makes a huge difference, turning IATI into a mainstream Initiative and – realistically – the only available mechanism for implementing the transparency commitments set out in paragraph 23 of the Busan Global Partnership. There was a striking difference between the laborious and cumbersome processes of trading off priorities in order to get to a common outcome document and the reality that people are voting with their feet, publishing to IATI, developing ways of getting feedback and information to and from the people who are supposed to benefit from aid.The challenges ahead are first, for those who have signed IATI to implement it fully, publishing the data that people working for poverty reduction need, and second, to support greater use of that data, creating a virtuous circle with demand for better data spurring supply, with IATI as the common international standard for delivering this.Technology is already creating exciting developments in feedback – UNICEF’s project in Uganda is recruiting young people to use SMS to report on schools, water points and other facilities. 1000 young people a day are registering to use this facility and the findings are reported in the media and to parliamentarians. The power of improved access to information, and in particular the opportunities for true accountability opened up by geocoding data and making transactions transparent clearly caught the imagination of many Busan participants.But there is a much bigger picture here. We need to see the question of access to data on resources - both aid and government spending - as central to both involving and being accountable to citizens. It catches the mood of our times, where citizens everywhere are making it clear that they want better access to information to make choices and exercise control over their lives. In response, an increasing number of governments – both those who give and those who receive aid – are becoming much more open, as highlighted by the launch of the Open Aid Partnership in Busan.We believe that access to information must be part of the agenda for post 2015, going beyond delivery of services to empowering citizens to have choices take more control of their lives. It struck me that transparency is an issue where the technical meets the transformative. Supplying better data to a common standard is something that donors can actually do quickly and easily - it is not like overcoming centuries of gender discrimination or resolving longstanding conflicts. And the use of that information is genuinely transformative - not just because it improves aid effectiveness and efficiency, but because it also transforms the power relationships around the table.

Busan: A good outcome on transparency

Alex Beech — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:20:45 +0000

There’s plenty to celebrate here at aidinfo as HLF4 ends in Busan today. Transparency has been the issue of the day, and the subject on everyone’s lips – for example, in his speech to today’s plenary, Danish Minister for Development Cooperation Christian Friis Bach emphasised the importance of access to information, noting its power to change societies should not be underestimated.For us, the highlight of the week as been the flurry of interest from new donors in signing up to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), with Canadian CIDA, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US, CDC and UNCDF all joining IATI during this week’s Forum.Transparency was also one of the most hotly contested issues during protracted negotiations on the Busan Outcome Document. The language included in the final text, released today as the Busan Partnership for Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation, inevitably represents a compromise, and is, in some respects, weaker than earlier drafts.Despite this, there is much to welcome:Transparency (and accountability) has been accepted as one of a number of shared principles that form the foundation of effective development cooperation (para 11d);Progress in making aid more transparent is acknowledged (para 15);And the crucial paragraph on transparency (23) includes a commitment to:c) Implement a common, open standard for electronic publication of timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information on resources provided through development co-operation, taking into account the statistical reporting of the OECDCDAC and the complementary efforts of the International Aid Transparency Initiative and others. This standard must meet the information needs of developing countries and non-state actors, consistent with national requirements. We will agree on this standard and publish our respective schedules to implement it by December 2012, with the aim of implementing it fully by December 2015. As a result of this week’s announcements, IATI signatories already account for 75% of ODA, and we believe that the text above provides a solid foundation for further progress in the coming months. The priorities now are for donors who have not yet joined IATI to do so, for those who have signed IATI to implement it, and for increased use of IATI data to create a virtuous circle, providing much-needed feedback from those who benefit from aid to those who provide it in order to maximise the impact of aid on poverty reduction.We will post further reflections on the outcome of HLF4 when our team return from Busan next week.

US announce their commitment to aid transparency initiative

Alex Beech — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:14:06 +0000

Fantastic news from HLF4 in Busan this morning, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing that the US has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).Following similar announcements by Canadian CIDA, CDC and the Inter-American Development Bank in Busan yesterday, this brings the total number of IATI signatories to 26.The US is the world’s largest bilateral donor with annual aid commitments of $30bn. With Canada and the US on board, IATI signatories now account for 75% of global Official Development Assistance (ODA).This latest news, combined with the fact that thirteen signatories and six further organisations have begun publishing their aid information to the IATI Registry, demonstrates that IATI is gaining momentum.The US has been engaged in the IATI process from the outset as an observer, and has already taken a number of steps to increase the transparency of its aid information such as the launch of the US Foreign Assistance Dashboard.Publication to IATI’s common, open standard will make this information much easier to find, use and compare. This in turn will help donors and developing country governments to plan and manage precious aid resources more effectively, and maximise the impact of aid in reducing poverty. And it will help parliaments, civil society organisations and citizens in both aid-giving and aid-receiving countries to hold their governments to account for aid spending.We urge all remaining donors to join IATI as a crucial step towards increasing the effectiveness of their aid.

The open data revolution comes to aid – Guest blog from Owen Barder

Alex Beech — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:14:26 +0000

Today we have a guest blog from Owen Barder, well-known development blogger and Senior Fellow and Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development. More than two thousand delegates have gathered today in Busan, South Korea, for the fourth installment of a succession of meetings aimed at making aid more effective.There has been significant progress since the meeting in Accra in 2008 towards improving transparency of aid. This is important because it’s a pre-requisite for achieving all the aid effectiveness principles. Jamie Drummond from the ONE campaign explains this very well in the Huffington Post.The challenge is to provide information to people at country level. Our existing aid information systems are mainly designed to enable donors to share information with each other, not to meet the needs of people in developing countries.But the information needs at country level are hugely diverse, both between and within developing countries. Within governments, the information needs of the finance ministry are different from the needs of line ministries. The needs of parliamentarians, civil society, media and citizens are all different again. It is impractical for donors to try to meet the needs of every niche interest with their own subset of the data in a particular format.뜻이 있는 곳에 길이 있다 (where there’s a will there’s a way)Here’s the technical bit: the way to serve all these different needs for information without massive duplication and bureaucracy is to separate the data from the interface. An open, standardised, detailed, shared data layer can support a whole range of different applications, tailored to specific users.That is why it is so exciting that the open data revolution is coming to aid. In 2008, in a side-meeting in Accra, a coalition of willing donors, developing countries, foundations and NGOs made a declaration which launched the International Aid Transparency Initiative. A lot of that data is now being published – countries accounting for nearly half of global aid are now publishing through IATI, and that proportion will grow in the coming months.If you are in Busan this week, and you want to know how IATI works, the IATI secretariat will be doing a briefing at 5pm on Wednesday, in room KW202 (I’m making a guest appearance to show off some beta software, so do come along and laugh at me when it doesn’t work).천릿길은 한 걸음부터 (A 1000-li journey starts with one step)Transparency by itself does not lead to more accountability, less waste, or better coordination. That happens when people are able to use the information. The extent to which they are able to do so depends on their context, including the political and administrative climate. Open data won’t automatically make organisations responsive, but will greatly reduce the difficulty and cost for citizens of taking the data and turning it into something meaningful and useful.With an open aid data platform now in place, huge opportunities are being opened. We can use the standard to introduce traceability of aid as it passes from organisation to organisation. We can improve the quality and detail of the data that is collected and publish it through these systems.Reporting of aid data should be not just by donors but by NGOs, private sector implementing agencies and foundations. The mechanisms for sharing information can be extended beyond aid to other kinds of resources for poverty reduction. We can add detailed geo-coding, to enable aid projects and programmes to be mapped, and better coordinated. We can begin to compare across aid programmes and across countries. We can mix aid information with other data from other sources.The twenty four donors who have signed IATI should be congratulated for their efforts to make data available. The payoff from that effort will come when we all start to use the data to understand aid better: to see what is working and what is not, and to hold the aid system to account, so leading to improvements in the effectiveness of aid. IATI removes the most significant barriers to entry for a wide range of diverse applications.The next step is to nurture and encourage an ecosystem of civil society groups, parliamentarians, researchers, think tanks, academics, governments, private sector organisation, media and hackers, all accessing and using the information in different ways, and using this as a platform to push for improvements in how resources for poverty reduction are used. The new Open Aid Partnership is an example of an initiative of this kind: the door is now open for many more.We can now look forward to the day when we take for granted the ubiquitous availability of aid data. We will soon forget that it was ever a struggle to find out about aid projects in a developing country, or to follow the money through NGOs and implementing partners. Having laid these important foundations, we will be able to move on to much more important and exciting innovations which support people in developing countries to use and repurpose this information and use it to change their world.

Canada makes transparency announcement from Busan

Alex Beech — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:51:24 +0000

Exciting news from Busan, where Canada’s Minister for International Cooperation, Beverly Oda, has just announced that Canada has joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).This brings the total number of IATI signatories up to 23, including 13 bilateral donors, seven multilateral organisations, two global programmes and one foundation. Together, IATI signatories account for two-thirds of official development flows.Canada has been involved in IATI from the outset as an observer – the decision to join shows that IATI is gaining momentum.We’d like to congratulate Engineers Without Borders Canada, who have campaigned tirelessly for Canada to join IATI, and have shown their commitment to “walk the talk” by becoming one of the first NGOs to publish their own data to the IATI Registry.The aidinfo team at Development Initiatives have helped to develop and promote IATI because we believe that publication of aid information to a common, open standard will help everyone involved in the aid business do their jobs better, and ensure that aid achieves maximum impact on poverty.Access to aid information is also essential for parliaments, civil society organisations and citizens who want hold their governments to account for public expenditure – whether they are tax-payers in donor countries who want to ensure value for money, or representatives of communities receiving aid, who want to be able to track aid spending on the ground to ensure that funds reach those they are intended for.It’s clear from our recent case studies in Kenya that citizens and CSOs are increasingly demanding this information, and that organisations such as the Social Development Network (SODNET) are using the tools and networks available to people on the ground -including SMS, radio, church groups - to monitor service-delivery, and pass on complaints to policy-makers via the internet.This confirms that there is real demand for better aid information at country level, and that when people have access to that kind of information, they know how to use it.IATI has the potential to make that information available to them - what we need now is for more donors to embrace IATI’s approach and sign up to the initiative - we hope that others will do so this week in Busan.

Kenyans demand transparency about public spending

Matt Bartlett — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:49:55 +0000

Kenyan citizens are increasingly calling for access to clear and reliable information on public spending, including expenditure that is funded from international aid.Our latest collection of case studies and videos from Kenya attempts to increase our understanding of the issues facing citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) who wish to access information about public spending, and who operate in a country where just over 10% of government expenditure comes from aid.It’s this knowledge that drives us forward towards the 4^th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan this week. A successful outcome for those who benefit from aid must include a specific, time-bound commitment to increase the transparency of aid information, and to publish that information in line with the common, open standard developed by the International Aid Transparency Initiative.This is a crucial step towards supporting citizens to hold their governments accountable for the way they spend public funds, including aid resources. When governments are more accountable, public spending is more effective and citizens are able to monitor and direct services that can greatly improve their lives.Angela Kageni is the Senior Programme Officer at Aidspan, a CSO based in Kenya. Aidspan work to, amongst other functions, track the flow of aid money from when it is dispersed to the point it reaches the ground.Kageni says:

Finding out how resources are being used at the country-level is a real challenge, but it is vital in making sure that what goes into the system is what comes out. It can be a bit difficult to track money right through the system. To be able to identify progress and analyse performance, and thus hold those using the money accountable, you need to know what money is coming in and how that money is being used.

Our new case studies illustrate these points only too well. By enabling ordinary people to use whatever means of communication are available to them – including mobile phones, local radio stations, places of worship and schools - CSOs in Kenya are witnessing a growing thirst for government accountability.Given the opportunity to report hospitals with no medicines, pumps with no water or schools with no teachers, people are stepping forward to register their complaints. Organisations like the Social Development Network (SODNET) are then analysing complaints against budgets and passing the information on to policy-makers via the internet.The National Taxpayers' Association (NTA), Twaweza and Uwezo also encourage people to monitor local spending on services like water provision, schools, health and infrastructure and to record their findings. The organisations are then analysing this information against government spending data and sharing it with policy-makers.By monitoring public spending, including the proportion funded by aid, the Kenyan people can ensure that they are benefiting from the services they are owed as citizens.Journalists like Luke Anami of Kenya's leading daily newspaper, The Standard, are getting involved and demanding more and better information. He says:

Often, even if information is available, it is not always accurate.

He calls on CSOs for information about public spending from the grass roots that is not available elsewhere.Reliable data about public resource flows in Kenya is not only hard to get hold of but is also often presented in a complex and inaccessible manner. Delays in the release of information about public spending – which may often be incomplete – further undermine timely analysis.Our new case studies highlight the demands of citizens and CSOs in developing countries for greater access to aid information. They illustrate what can be achieved when this need is met. And they challenge those who are meeting in Busan next week to take action on improving access to aid information.As Kwame Owino, CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

The importance of accurate data can’t be overstated. We as civil society need to be able to contribute to the public debate about policy, while the public need it in order to hold the authorities to account and to participate in their own governance.

View our new Kenyan case studies and videos to find out more.

Oxfam GB commits to aid transparency initiative

Alex Beech — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:48:01 +0000

This week we have a guest blog from Paul Clough, Head of International Finance at Oxfam GB. Ahead of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in South Korea, Oxfam GB has become one of the first INGOs to publish their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Paul Clough, Head of International Finance at Oxfam GB talks us through their decision to publish in this way and looks at their next steps over the coming months. Why publish Oxfam data?Oxfam is committed to being accountable to our key stakeholders, in particular people living in poverty. For some time, we have wanted to support this commitment by publishing our programme data and IATI provided us with a common data format to work towards that will allow people to compare different organisations across the sector.The decision to publish our data was also largely driven by our Open Information Policy which was updated in July this year. The policy states Oxfam’s commitment to proactively publish information in order to be transparent and accountable.Publishing this information will also become a condition for receiving some funds from donors in future, including DFID.What have we published so far?Our first wave of published data includes most international projects that were active in 2010/11 and were not primarily programme support. The data covers currently 834 projects in 54 countries and contains both financial information and short descriptions.In line with our new Open Information Policy and the Programme Partnership Arrangements we decided to publish data relating to all our international projects rather than just DFID-funded projectsSome projects have been omitted from publication to avoid any risk to staff security or any harm to our operations. All exclusions from publication are outlined in our Open Information policy.In addition to the data we are sharing today, we’re also aware of the need to publish relevant project documents. In 2010 we published a selection of programme evaluations on our website for the first time. There are now 98 evaluation reports available to download on our site. We expect this number to grow towards 2013 as we strive to be more transparent about the impact of our programmes.What were the challenges?Oxfam is lucky to already have a single effective system that manages our projects, finances and donor contracts. However we still faced some tough decisions: which projects should be considered sensitive, was the quality of our data good enough and which parts should we publish first.The technical challenge of converting the raw data into XML and mapping to IATI standards was greater than expected, but we overcame this hurdle.Finally we faced the issue of how the information will be understood externally – the source of the data is from internal systems, designed for internal consumption using organisational terminology that may not be easily understood by an external audience.Committing to publishing our data as it is on a rolling basis will help us to develop our internal systems to improve data extraction and validation processes, as well as the standard of data being added to the system. Knowing the data will ultimately go public should help with this process.This is just the first stepBy April 2013 we plan to expand the information on our projects and move to publishing at quarterly intervals rather than annually. We will also aim to improve the quality of the data published and reduce the level of exclusions.We are also looking at doing some data visualisation work to support our accountability communications to stakeholders. We already do some of this in our annual reports but only at a global level, producing infographics from this data would be a great way to show how and where Oxfam is having an impact in the lives of poor people.Read more about the project on Oxfam’s Policy & Practice websiteYou can view the full Oxfam GB data set now via the IATI registry.

Guest blog – EWB Gets Transparent After a Year of Advocacy Success

Alex Beech — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:34:18 +0000

This week we have a guest blog from James Haga, Director of Advocacy from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada. On the eve of EWB publishing their information to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), James tells us why this is an important for the organisation and how they see it developing in the future. EWB Gets Transparent After a Year of Advocacy SuccessToday, in advance of the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in South Korea, Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) became the third NGO in the world to publish its aid information using the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).

Why we did it

Publishing to the IATI standard is not only a part of our commitment to making information about our organization's activities easier to access, use and understand, it's also a commitment to growing the global aid transparency movement and demonstrating that organizations of all sizes have a role to play in championing a common international standard for aid transparency.After over a year of promoting increased aid transparency and the adoption of IATI to the Canadian government, EWB feels it is time to turn some of our attention towards making our own operations more transparent. In partnership with the Open Aid Register (a new initiative to help NGOs become more transparent), our first phase of IATI implementation includes data about EWB's work in Malawi's water and sanitation sector.

This is just the first step

While this is an important first step, we appreciate that we have more work to do in learning how aid transparency can best contribute to improved development effectiveness. In the weeks and months to come, we're committed to publishing more and more data that will shed light on other areas of our work in Africa.

Still learning, still evolving

Taking this step has helped us learn a LOT about the challenges and nuances of publishing to the IATI standard. IATI remains a work in progress, and as such we believe it's crucial for development organizations to not only publish their activities and spending, but also to provide real-time feedback that makes the standard more effective and easier for citizens, donors and aid organizations to use. We believe this commitment to learning from, and improving, IATI is what will help guarantee its long-term success as a truly global standard for aid transparency.EWB adopting the IATI standard represents the start of a conversation, not the end. Transparency alone does not necessarily improve aid effectiveness: our goal now is to put out more and better data, to ensure that this information helps us and others improve the impact of our investments. We don't know exactly how this data will be used, but over the next few months as we publish more data sets about our work, we hope you’ll give us honest feedback on how we can strengthen our contribution to the aid transparency movement.

Canada making incremental improvements

We've said it before - we're encouraged by the steps that Canada is taking towards transparency and more effective Canadian aid, including the Canadian International Development Agency's (CIDA's) launch of an Open Data Portal that publishes more Canadian aid spending data than ever before. We're hopeful that CIDA will continue along this path, taking practical steps to strengthen aid transparency in a manner that aligns well with IATI and a global standard.Finally, we want to express our sincere gratitude to our friends and international partners who have helped us become IATI compliant, particularly Ruth Del Campo (Open Aid Register), Isabel Bucknall (aidinfo) and Claudia Elliot (Publish What You Fund).You can view EWB's first data set now via the IATI registry.Click here to read more stories about Engineers Without Borders' Advocacy work »

HIV/AIDS Alliance commit to transparency

Alex Beech — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:26:02 +0000

This week we have a guest blog from Farai Matsika, Programme Officer in the Planning Analysis and Learning Unit at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance. The Alliance have just become the first INGO to publish their data to the International Aid Transparency Initiative. Farai was responsible for coordinating the process, he talks us through their decision to publish in this way and looks at their next steps over the coming months. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) has become the first civil society organisation to publish its data using the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard, which aims to make information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand.Our decision to make this move came as part of our commitment to value for money and cost effectiveness. We published on the IATI registry details of 38 projects that are funded through our International Secretariat and implemented by Alliance Linking Organisations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.In publishing to IATI, we join donors such as the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the governments of Australia (AusAID) and the Netherlands (BUZA), the World Bank, the Hewlett Foundation and Development Initiatives Poverty Research (DIPR) in making our data transparent and accessible using a common format.The experience of ensuring that the Alliance’s programmatic and financial data met the IATI standard has had a significant impact on our work. We are already planning spin-off projects, for example remodeling our M&E system around the IATI standard.

A commitment to aid transparency

I spoke to Sam McPherson, our Associate Director from the Planning Analysis & Learning Unit who explained why it is important for us to adopt the IATI standard: ‘The Alliance welcomed the IATI initiative from the beginning. We have been committed to making our data available to all stakeholders through our Impact Microsite and interactive map.’As an organisation, we have a Partnership Programme Agreement with DFID who were one of the donors who were behind the launch of IATI in 2008. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, Stephen O'Brien, said:

I am pleased that the International HIV/AIDS Alliance has become the first civil society organisation to publish its data to the IATI standard. The best way to demonstrate that aid works is to be open and transparent about how it is used. This is why the British government has created an independent aid watchdog to provide unflinching scrutiny of our programmes.Making information about aid spending easier to access means that UK taxpayers and citizens in poor countries can hold DFID and partners to account for using aid money effectively and for its intended purpose. The Alliance is leading the way in transforming accountability in the NGO sector.

The next steps

We know that this data release is just the first step along a long path to greater aid transparency. Sam says:

We are aware that there is more work to be done. We will be working with our Linking Organisations in-country so that they too can become IATI compliant

Some donors, such as the UK Department for International Development, have started making it a requirement for organisations they fund to make their data accessible via the IATI standard. The Alliance Secretariat will be providing support to Alliance Linking Organisations who wish to start moving on the path toward greater data transparency.You can view the full Alliance data set now via the IATI registry. We will be adding details of any new projects to the registry, as well as updating the status of existing ones on a quarterly basis.

Berlin Open Aid Data Conference

Isabel Bucknall — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:58:08 +0000

Last week, aidinfo spent two days in Berlin at the Open Aid Data Conference. Claudia Schwegmann from Open Aid organised the conference with support from the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Open Knowledge Foundation, Transparency International Germany, Oxfam Germany, One and Open for Change.This excellent event was designed to stimulate the debate on transparency and open data in aid and development cooperation. Bringing together open data developers, aid and development practitioners from both public and non-government sectors, the conference brought about a vibrant set of discussions. It was inspiring to see such a diverse group together and share their experiences and ideas.The first day comprised a training workshop on different data sources on aid and development cooperation. We led this event, which ran alongside a hackday organised by Christian Kreuz from the Open Knowledge Foundation. The collaboration of policy makers and analysts, with open data specialists and developers, continued a lively tradition of exploring open data and bottom-up solutions for aid and development. Participants worked on several projects to understand what can be done with data that is already available in the public domain. They also discussed how organisations can implement open data practices. Their feedback indicated that their success and progress came from bringing together these two groups of people and engaging in practical discussions.Day 2 of the conference opened with a series of presentations on open data and transparency from 3 different development organisations. (You can browse the videos on the Open Aid Data Conference website and hear interviews with Deutsche Welle here.) These were followed by “walk the talk” sessions, where participants had a chance to see several practical examples of transparency in development cooperation (including the work of the International Aid Transparency Initiative), and the use of open data.It was exciting to be part of an event with such a sense of enthusiasm, energy and creativity that brought together the open data and aid transparency worlds in order to improve the effectiveness of aid and development cooperation.We learnt a lot about open data initiatives and transparency, but pulled out two key messages from the event:

Transparency and open data should be about learning

Becoming transparent and opening data can teach organisations a lot about the way they work and their efficiency. Beris Gwynne from World Vision International stressed that accountability is as much about learning as it is about compliance.” Transparency and accountability of an organisation to its partners is not only about meeting a standard, but ensuring that you can learn from the information you produce through that standard. It is a necessary but not sufficient end to improve accountability and increased effectiveness of development work. As such it should stimulate discussions around what organisations do, what they do or don’t achieve, and from that, what they can learn.

Publishing open data can often become more effective with collaboration from government, civil society and open data specialists.

There was some discussion around the cooperation and support that open data specialists can offer to the public sector, and how consultation with civil society can ensure that the publication of open data is effective and useful. Collaboration of this kind opens up a more creative and accountable working model, that enables all types of organisations to publish open data that can then be harnessed to improve efficiency and effectiveness.The conference was closed with an inspiring keynote speech from Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International, who stressed the scope and importance of transparency and open data in the development sector, most importantly recognising that although the numbers that organisations open up can’t fight poverty, data can be used as an empowering tool - the starting point for increased pressure and accountability.For more information on the Open Aid Data Conference, you can find details at www.openaiddata.de . aidinfo are also hoping to be at the Warsaw Open Government Data Camp 2011 to continue discussing this pertinent and exciting agenda.