UNDP scores high for transparency

THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP) has been ranked one of the most transparent multilateral aid organizations, according to the Publish What you Fund’s 2013 Aid Transparency Index.

The Index is aimed at making even the granting of aid a transparent process, given that billions of dollars of aid are disbursed, distributed, and spent all over the world every year.

Because a significant portion of these aid initiatives seeks to make governments and administrations more transparent, the Index emphasizes the need for the aid organizations to practice transparency as well.

The UNDP is partnered with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) in some of the local transparency initiatives. The PCIJ is also part of the Right to Know Right Now Coalition, a network of 160 civil society organizations pushing for the passage of a Freedom of Information act.

“The UNDP should be congratulated for making significant improvements to its International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) publication and for updating its implementation schedule to be more ambitious – including plans to publish 88 percent of IATI fields,” the authors of the report said.

The report recognized the UNDP for its “ambitious” efforts to publish information “beyond international standards,” placing the organization fourth overall out of 67 major donors evaluated worldwide, a UNDP statement said.

The Index aims to increase the accountability of donor countries, and “allows developing countries to better align donor assistance with their national priorities and budgets.”

“Transparency is at the heart of the way we work,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. “UNDP has a longstanding commitment to accountability, and is committed to making the most effective and transparent use of the resources for development entrusted to it.”

UNDP Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan said the improved transparency initiatives of the UNDP include:

• The inclusion of sub-national geographic information;
• Increased frequency of project information release from yearly to quarterly; and
• Enhancement of the Open.UNDP.org portal to show country-level and donor views of the work.