Ghana hosts Aid Transparency workshop

Accra, Sept. 7, GNA - Ghana will host a consultative meeting on Aid Transparency in Accra from September 8 to September 9. A statement issued in Accra on Monday by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said it was being organised in collaboration with the UNDP through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Secretariat.

It said representatives of partner countries from West and Central Africa, Ghana and Civil Society Organisations would participate in the meeting.

They are; Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote D'lvoire, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Boone, South Africa, Tanzania and Togo.

The IATI was launched at the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (Accra HLF) in September 2008, as an energized attempt to make information about aid flows more available and accessible to all stakeholders, particularly partner countries.

IATI seeks to respond to the concerns raised by partner countries and civil society organizations that information about aid flows is not sufficiently timely, detailed or accessible.

The 2008 Paris Declaration evaluation found that partner countries faced "continuous serious difficulties in securing and providing timely, transparent and comprehensive information on aid flows that enable them to fully report on budgets to their legislature and citizens." Through IATI, donors will also implement the commitments made in the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) to 'publicly disclose regular, detailed and timely information on volume, allocation and, when available, results of development expenditure to enable more accurate budgeting, accounting and audit by developing countries." Further, IATI provides a unique platform for donors, partner countries, Civil Society Organisations and other users of aid information to agree on common standards for the publication of information about aid flows.

The Accra meeting, like other IATI regional consultancies worldwide, aims at familiarizing partner countries and stakeholders with IATI and its objectives as it relates to the Accra AAA, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and other international aid commitments.

Others are; identify information needs of partner countries, which are not currently being met and make recommendations for areas to be included in the scope of potential IATI standards. Facilitate South-South learning and peer exchange on good practices, lessons learnt and challenges from the deployment of Aid Information Management Systems, and how the IATI can help to improve the effectiveness of such systems, as well as how best practices and experiences with country AIMS can feed into the development of an IATI standard.

It will also discuss how to take the IATI forward at country, sub-regional, regional and global levels, to include partner country needs in regard to capacity development. 07 Sept. 09