The potential redesign of both the State Department and USAID – and their relationship to each other in managing US foreign assistance – is the topic of much discussion and ideas. How our foreign assistance is delivered, by whom, and with what objective is all part of debate. Some of the ideas are big, such as A New Foreign Aid Architecture Fit for Purpose by the MFAN Co-Chairs, which combines key development agencies and initiatives into one streamlined agency. In the spirit

Last month Ghana hosted the second Africa Open Data Conference (AODC). The event sought to showcase the thriving open data community on the continent, bringing together open data advocates, journalists, sector specialists and software developers from across Africa and beyond. Representatives from the Initiative for Open Ag Funding and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Secretariat were both in attendance. While we had different reasons for taking part in the

When the US made the important commitment to aid transparency in Busan in 2011, it was applauded as a significant step toward more effective, evidence-based foreign assistance. The transparency road has been a bit bumpy, but some recent work by USAID in Bangladesh gives us some important reasons to cheer. Joining IATI The US joined other major donors and agreed to publish information on how and where they disburse their aid to the common standard, known as the International A