ADB retains top position in aid transparency index

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) retained its first place ranking in the 2020 Aid Transparency Index (ATI), an independent measurement of aid transparency released on Wednesday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

In the index, spearheaded by British nongovernment organisation Publish What You Fund, ADB’s sovereign portfolio is ranked in the “very good” transparency category of the ATI with the top score of 98, according to a press release.

“I take great pride in ADB’s first position in an index that is playing a key role in helping to promote greater transparency and openness among international agencies,” said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, reports UNB.

“ADB has continuously worked to improve the disclosure of its aid data in terms of quality and scope. Our top ranking reflects the dedication of staff, across the organisation, to ensure adherence to aid transparency standards.”

This is the second time that ADB ranked No. 1 in the ATI, which had its pilot run in 2011. The 2020 Index is the seventh full Index report to monitor and encourage progress toward aid transparency.

Data collection was carried out from December 2019 to April 2020, and focused on 35 indicators, grouped into five components: finance and budgets, joining up development data, organisational planning and commitments, project attributes and performance. The Index groups donors into five categories based on their overall scores (out of 100).

Ten other organisations among the 47 ranked were this year classified in the “very good” category with a score of at least 80 per cent—the World Bank-International Development Association, the United Nations Development Programme, the African Development Bank–Sovereign portfolio, the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the US Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Global Fund, UK Department for International Development, the Canada Global Affairs, and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

The 2020 Aid Transparency Index reveals an improvement in overall transparency among the world’s major aid agencies. Donors are publishing more, better quality data in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard, according to the publishers.

All of the donors, except those in the “very poor” category, are publishing IATI data about their activities and policies, meaning their information is open, timely, comparable and centralised, meeting the international standard for aid transparency.