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The Money Trail: Ranking Donor Transparency in Foreign Aid

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  • Ghosh, Anirban
  • Kharas, Homi

Abstract

Transparency of aid activity is being recognized to be one of the key areas whereby aid effectiveness can be improved. In this paper, we propose an index to measure and rank donors on the transparency of their aid activities. The Transparency Index rates 31 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies on six measures of transparency. We find that being a member of the IATI is a powerful signal of a donor being more transparent across most other dimensions as well. We find no relationship between transparency and donor aid volumes. Overall IDA and Australia are identified as the most transparent donors, while Korea and IDB Special Fund are the least transparent.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghosh, Anirban & Kharas, Homi, 2011. "The Money Trail: Ranking Donor Transparency in Foreign Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1918-1929.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:39:y:2011:i:11:p:1918-1929
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.07.026
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. William Easterly & Tobias Pfutze, 2008. "Where Does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Aid," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 29-52, Spring.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Liya Palagashvili & Claudia R. Williamson, 2021. "Grading foreign aid agencies: Best practices across traditional and emerging donors," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 654-676, May.
    3. Gordon D Cumming, 2017. "A Prototypical Case in the Making? Challenging Comparative Perspectives on French Aid," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 19-36, January.
    4. Wako, Hassen, 2016. "Aid, institutions and economic growth: Heterogeneous parameters and heterogeneous donors," MERIT Working Papers 2016-009, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    5. Yanguas, Pablo & Hulme, David, 2015. "Barriers to Political Analysis in Aid Bureaucracies: From Principle to Practice in DFID and the World Bank," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 209-219.
    6. Sebastian Haug & Jack Taggart, 2024. "Global Development Governance 2.0: Fractured accountabilities in a divided governance complex," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(1), pages 128-134, February.
    7. Joel Atkinson, 2018. "The real East Asian Aid model: Development assistance as an instrument of comprehensive security in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(3), pages 265-284, May.
    8. Michener, Gregory, 2015. "Policy Evaluation via Composite Indexes: Qualitative Lessons from International Transparency Policy Indexes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 184-196.
    9. Fahmida Khatun & Syed Yusuf Saadat & Md. Kamruzzaman, 2019. "FINANCE FOR SDGs: Addressing Governance Challenge of Aid Utilisation in Bangladesh," CPD Working Paper 125, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
    10. Katharina Michaelowa & Axel Michaelowa & Bernhard Reinsberg & Igor Shishlov, 2020. "Do Multilateral Development Bank Trust Funds Allocate Climate Finance Efficiently?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.

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