The Inter-American Development Bank has begun publishing this month data on the development financing it provides to Latin America and the Caribbean at www.aidflows.org, a public web site that provides information about the volume and type of development funds flowing from donors to recipient countries around the world in an intuitive visual format.
The user-friendly tool helps policymakers make informed decisions about development funding, increasing transparency and enriching the global dialogue about the sources and uses of development funds at an aggregate level. AidFlows is a partnership whose members presently include, in addition to IDB, the OECD, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, whose data will be surfaced in the next several months.
The move is just one example of the IDB’s continued efforts to boost transparency and accountability by making key data about its operations available in different formats and platforms. In March, the Bank began publishing data under the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) common standard and, in 2011; the IDB approved a new Access to Information Policy that requires disclosure of all Bank-produced information subject to a narrowly defined list of exceptions.
The IDB window in AidFlows shows data by individual borrowing country and covers commitments, undisbursed commitments and outstanding balances, disbursements, as well as sector breakdowns with sub-sector detail. IDB product lines are shown graphically and accompanied by a summary of the IDB’s operational program in each country. The window also links to the Bank’s MapAmericas tool that allows users to access a wealth of project data (including specific outputs).
Through the tool, the IDB shows how resources from its Ordinary Capital, Fund for Special Operations, and Grant Facility have been used. The Bank is also making available on the site member country capital subscription information.
AidFlows was made possible by open data initiatives within various governments and public and private institutions around the world. Learn more about AidFlows on YouTube (Preview). More information about the IDB’s Access to Information policy can be found at the Bank's website.
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