Attachments
1. Executive summary
The Aid Transparency Index has tracked the transparency of the largest international aid organisations over the last 12 years. Results from the Index have shown an incremental but persistent increase in the quality of aid data published by these organisations. The 2024 Aid Transparency Index has recorded its highest ever scores, showing a continuation of this trend. The work, however, is not finished. Some publishers have effectively stagnated in their performance in the Index, and some organizations have dropped, sometimes significantly.
Performance on the 2024 Index comes at a time when aid transparency data is being used more than ever by aid and development agencies, journalists, think tanks and civil society organisations. High quality, granular, real time aid data is essential for better decisions around funding, planning, coordination, accountability, and to build longer term improvements, resilience, and self-sufficiency.
The 2024 Index has recorded its highest ever scores
OVERALL. The average score across all organisations in 2024 was the highest recorded so far – this increase reflects incremental improvements in the quality, quantity and timeliness of aid data published by the 50 international aid organisations we assess.
All but one of the organisations are publishing at least some data in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard – meaning it is open, standardised, comparable and machine readable. This has resulted in the lowest number of organisations ever scoring in the ‘very poor’ category.
TOP OF THE CHART. At the top of the rankings, the African Development Bank (AfDB) (Sovereign) ranked first, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) ranked second, and the highestranking bilateral aid agency, the US Millennium Challenge Corporation came third. Altogether, 12 organisations achieved ‘very good’ scores, the most ever in this category.
MOST IMPROVED. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the European Commission Directorate General for International Partnerships increased their scores by 11 and 10.5 points respectively. Lower down in the rankings, the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation increased its score by 43 points as it started publishing detailed IATI data for its activities, and Japan International Cooperation Agency jumped 31.9 points as it re-started its IATI publication following a hiatus in 2022.
UN organisations perform well in the Index
Six UN organisations were assessed in this Index. All publish good quality IATI data on their projects and organisational policies. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was the highest-ranking UN organisation, achieving fourth place with a score of 92.2. The World Food programme and UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency, both first timers to the Index, scored 84.5 and 63.4 respectively.
The sovereign portfolios of development banks are top performers
The Index assesses six sovereign (public sector) portfolios and six non-sovereign (private sector) portfolios of development finance institutions (DFIs). The sovereign portfolios of DFIs occupy three of the top five positions in the ranking: AfDB (1st), IADB (2nd) and World Bank International Development Association (4th). DFIs tend to include more expansive confidentiality clauses in contracts with the private sector which limit disclosure, and non-sovereign portfolios generally rank lower than their sovereign counterparts.