A Publish What You Fund report on aid transparency has ranked Australia 25 out of 46 major aid donors in meeting transparency standards agreed to at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011, scoring less than 50% on the index.

The report states that, “Aid transparency helps in three ways. It gives government officials better information to help them allocate resources. It gives civil society better information so they may hold government to account. And it helps people everywhere who care about development to share and learn from their experiences.”

However, the report also recognises that, “…. transparency by itself will not bring about better development. The information needs to be available and accessible to everyone. People must be able to use it, give feedback and help improve it. Government must act on it. Publication is necessary, but far from sufficient… Full transparency therefore means following the money and tracking results.”

 

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