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INTRODUCTION
Today’s world faces unprecedented challenges, affecting almost all aspects of life across the globe. War and conflicts have deepened, hunger and migration have been exacerbated by climate change and other man-made causes, and uneven economic growth has widened both inequalities and health disparities for the poor and other vulnerable populations. The resources to address all these needs are also growing, straining all budgets.
The United States, as one of the world’s largest donors, plays a critical role in helping to meet these needs, but resources are not infinite. It is imperative that US – and other – resources are spent effectively and efficiently, both to meet immediate needs but also to craft solutions that lead to longer term improvements and sufficiency. Increasing efforts to direct more resources to locally led development, for example, will allow our partner governments and their societies to better address their own development needs.
Transparency is fundamental to this movement. While it doesn’t solve all issues, transparency around funding, planning, and results can improve coordination, design, and outcomes. The US has made consistent progress in improving the transparency of its foreign assistance. It joined the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) in 2011 and started publication to the standard in 2013. Congress passed the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act (FATAA) in 2016, requiring issuance of evaluation policies and publication of detailed project information and evaluations by all agencies involved in the implementation of US foreign assistance. In 2019, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act was signed into law, calling on all major agencies to improve the use of evidence in decision making.1 In 2021 the two US foreign assistance dashboards were consolidated into one – ForeignAssistance.gov – with significant improvements to quality and useability.
All these steps have made information and data around US foreign assistance arguably the most transparent functions of US government spending. There are now 21 US entities involved in implementing foreign assistance and all of them are required to post detailed information to ForeignAssistance.gov.2
The 2024 Aid Transparency Index (“the Index”) marks the ninth time that various US agencies have been assessed for the transparency of their data. This year, the Index again includes the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the Department of State (State). For the first time the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also included, given its role in implementing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).3 The US results are mixed – MCC again lands in the “very good” category, coming in 3rd overall and first among the bilateral aid agencies. USAID is in the “good” category, slightly improving its performance from the 2022 Index. The State Department, however, has dropped over nine points, sliding further down in the “fair” category. HHS ranks the lowest of the US agencies, in the “poor” category, with a score of 34.8.