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THE PUBLISH WHAT YOU FUND PRINCIPLES
Consideringthat transparency of development aid is a pre-condition for aid to be participatory and accountable;
Conscious that transparency is necessary to promote integrity and fight corruption and is a key source of accountability;
Conscious that in fragile states the existence of weak institutions often hinders the public’s ability to access information, thus contributing to low levels of trust and increasing the possibility of violent conflict which reverses development efforts;
Convinced thatthe right of access to information is a right of all people living in all countries and that special steps need to be taken to redress information asymmetries and to ensure that all sectors of society, including women, minorities, and other respect marginalised groups, have equal access to information;
Convinced that transparency in the aid sector requires public bodies to take active measures to promote openness and to disseminate information they generate and hold about their activities and functions;
Recognisingthat private bodies performing public functions and/or operating with public funds in the aid sector are also subject to transparency obligations;
Recognisingthat aid cannot be truly effective unless there is ownership of aid by the communities it is designed to support;
Believing that governments and international donors working with elected representatives and citizens’ organizations should develop open and transparent policies on how aid is to be sourced, spent, monitored and accounted for;
Weas governments, civil society organisations andprivate sector organisations [concerned with the giving and receiving of aid]in aid donor and aid recipient countriesdesiring to ensure that aid is effective in alleviating poverty and promoting sustainable development, commit to implement and promotethe following transparency principles:
1. Access to Information for Transparency of the Aid Sector
Statesand multilateral organizations providingdevelopment aid should guarantee the right of access to information about development aid, including through creation of mechanisms by which everyone can request and to receive information, subject only to limited exceptions that are consistent with international law.
The procedures for processing such requests should be simple, speedy and free. Everyone has the right to request and to receive information without the need to justify the request and without any citizenship or residency requirements. Information should be provided for free or with only reproduction costs being charged.Everyone should be guaranteed a right to appeal refusal to provide or failure to disclose information.
In countries where access to information laws already exist, they should apply to all public bodies engaged in the aid process, as well as all private bodies performing public functions or operating with public funds. In countries where access to information laws have not yet been adopted, sector-specific rules for transparency of the aid sector should be considered. Donors should meet the standards of their own access to information laws in all the countries where they work, regardless of whether the recipient country has similar laws, and facilitate access to information by citizens of recipient countries in the same way that they would their own citizens.
- Proactive Publication of Information on Development Aid
Public institutions working on development aid should have an obligation to disseminate information on their core activities. There should be automatic and timely disclosure and broad dissemination of informationincluding information on:
- All aid flows, including data on all aid pledged, committed and disbursed, disaggregated by country, sector and modality;
- Institutional structures, policies and procedures;
- Regional and country strategies;
- Spending priorities and criteria for the allocation of aid
- Conditions, benchmarks, triggers, and prior and agreed actions negotiated
between donors and recipients.
- Procurement procedures, criteria, tenders and decisions
- Monitoring and evaluation and audit reports
- Opportunities for public participation in decision-making and evaluation;
The only restrictions on the proactive publication of this information should be based on limited exceptions consistent with international law and subject to consideration of the public interest in the information.
All public bodies engaged in development aid should publish a register or index of the documents that they hold, and wherever possible these should be organized in a way that it is possible to identify all the documents linked to a particular decision-making process, and similarly all documents related to a specific country, aid programme or project.
In addition, donors must proactively provide detailed information to recipients of aid, in a manner consistent with recipient budget processes on:
- Multi-year spending plans for their country, including information on sectoral
and modality breakdown
- Disbursement schedules and procedures
- Clarity and Accessibility of Information
Information should be presented in plain and readily comprehensible language whilst retaining the detail necessary for participation and accountability.
Information should be made available in the languages spoken by the principal stakeholders and affected communities.
Accessibility implies forms of disseminationappropriate for different audiences. To this end, dissemination should not be limited to internet publication and should include printed material disseminated directly to stakeholders and, where appropriate, information delivered orally in meetings with stakeholders.
Accessibility implies timeliness: information shall be made available in sufficient time to permit participation and for evaluation of aid project to have an impact on future decision-making.
It is particularly important that donors provide recipients with information in formats, and at times, which are appropriate for recipient budget planning and execution processes.
- Quality of Information
Information on development aid should be prepared in a format that is meaningful for use by recipient governments and the principal stakeholders and affected communities. To this end information holders should further develop or establish information management systems that permit collection and generation of quality information about aid policies, processes, financial flows and outcomes. Reporting of financial information should be consistent with international accounting standards.
Transparency of decision-making requires that decisions about aid be made on the basis of clearly-defined and published policies and criteria. Donors should ensure that their decision-making processes are clear and transparent, and publish explanations for key decisions (e.g. suspension of withdrawal of aid).
Donors and recipient governments should compile and present information in sufficient detail to facilitate evaluation by external actors of the effectiveness of aid. Information should be compiled on the effectiveness of aid against commonly agreed indicators for assessing outcomesand for measuring performance against international commitments and targets.
5. Participation for democratic ownership
The concept of ‘democratic ownership’ means more than donorsconsulting recipient governments and implies the wide participation of citizens through the engagement of parliaments and civil society organisations in the development process.
In order to engage a wide range of stakeholders,donors and recipient governments should establish participation and consultation processes. These consultation processesshould be transparent and open: there should be timely notification of public consultations with draft documents and supporting background documents made easily available. A report on who participated in consultations, what their comments and recommendations were, and how input from relevant stakeholders was taken into account should always be produced and made public.
Wherever possible, donors should use existing nationally or locally-organised consultation mechanisms, and should work through government consultation processes in recipient countries.The form of consultation should be tailored to the different stakeholders, with meetings and public forums being organized where appropriate.
6. Independent Monitoring of Aid Processes
Transparency should be complemented by independent monitoring and evaluation of aid at the international and country levels. Any monitoring, evaluation and assessment of aid needs to be truly transparent, independent and participatory. Donors and recipient governments should work with elected representatives, civil society and other stakeholders to establishing effective, independent and transparent mechanisms for monitoring development aid and for providing stakeholder feedback. These mechanisms should include formal and informal answerability structures at the national and international level.
7.Awareness-Raising and Skills Building on Access to Information and Participation
Donors and recipient governments as well as other actors disbursing aidshould build awareness-raising into their aid programmes in order that parliamentarians, journalists, civil society activists, and the general public, as well as in particular the communities directly affected by aid programmes are informed of their right of access to information and the opportunities for participation in decision-making processes.
Where appropriate, aid and development programmes managed by donors and recipient governments should include a skills-building component in order to build the capacity of stakeholders to make use of available information and to participate in a meaningful way in aid-related decision-making.
These Principles are endorsed by the following organizations:1
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