Data, Impact, and Accountability: Lessons from the 2024 Aid Transparency Index. Luke Newton and Eric J. Gordon, Creative Investment Research

 

Data, Impact, and Accountability: Lessons from the 2024 Aid Transparency Index

On July 16th, the Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings hosted “Aid data, impact, and the Sustainable Development Goals” to spotlight the 2024 Aid Transparency Index launch. The event featured presentations by Gary Forester, Publish What You Find CEO, and Laurel Patterson, Director for SDG Integration at the United Nations Development Programme, Global Policy Network. Brookings Senior Fellow George Ingram then moderated a panel discussion consisting of Christophe Tocco, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID, Zacharey Carmichael, Senior Economist for Agriculture & Food Global Practice at the World Bank, and Samuel Kobina Annim, Professor of Economics and Head of the Ghana Statistical Service.

Forester’s presentation focused primarily on what was revealed in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index, which surveyed over 166,000 independent aid projects. The index achieved its highest-ever score, meaning more governments are reporting more of their investment data. This unprecedented level of transparency provides insight into how much money is going where and for what purpose, supporting international collaboration and ensuring accountability. Despite a high index transparency score, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which international aid aims to meet, are unfortunately on track to underperform their 2030 targets. Patterson’s presentation added insight by breaking down the data provided by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and exhibiting the accessibility of the UN’s SDG Dashboard, which becomes more accurate year over year. She addressed issues of unaccounted for international SDG data and the pressures, or stresses, of development cooperation and funding insufficiencies.

The presenters consistently raised the point that there is a need for “just” and “green” development, requiring conscientious, or impact, investment. This aligns with the ideals and incentives behind the broader environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment movement. However, to achieve sufficient growth, lower poverty rates, and raise living standards, many nations are forced to invest in environmentally degrading projects, thereby nullifying efforts to reverse carbon emissions. As such, few countries are achieving good, or “just” and “green”, development when planetary well-being is a consideration.

The panel extended many points raised in the presentations into a thoughtful and nuanced discussion about the impact of aid data on addressing food insecurity crises. “Data for what,” asks Carmichael. “Data for action, data for making change on the ground.” Experts on the panel emphasized the importance of stretching the increasingly limited dollars going to international aid and development by always keeping the real outcome in mind and targeting resources accordingly. To Carmichael, in the case of aid transparency, if you go to donors with a new, burdensome data-sharing requirement, they are less likely to provide the data as if you effectively communicate its usefulness. Moreover, resources like the Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard are as only as practical as their inputs, so more diverse data drives more accurate assessments, according to Kobina Annim. In Ghana, for example, data used by the country's Statistical Service routinely comes from national surveys and censuses but has recently expanded to include non-traditional sources and data from other jurisdictions to enable the government to act with more precision. 

The 2024 Aid Transparency Index reveals that while increased data sharing provides a more complete, useful picture, it is only sometimes pretty. Today, 2.4 billion people on earth, or 29.6%, are food insecure, and 281 million of them are “knocking on famine’s door," or facing acute food insecurity. This number has increased by 250% since 2016. In fact, data show that we are further from reaching nearly all 17 of the UN’s 2030 Goals. The Center for Sustainable Development at Brookings is just one research and advocacy limb of a larger aid industry devoted to addressing these critical issues and finding sustainable solutions to global hunger and poverty. On one level, events like yesterday’s celebrate the work of those who have devoted their lives to this mission, but on another, they accentuate the immense potential for future accomplishments through ongoing dialogue and collaboration.

Resources:

“Aid data, impact, and the Sustainable Development Goals”. (2024). Brookings Institution.

“2024 Aid Transparency Index”. (2024). Publish What You Fund.

“The 17 Goals”. (2016). Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Sustainable Development, United  Nations.

“About IATI”. (2024). International Aid Transparency Initiative.

“Sustainable Development Report Dashboard”. (2024). Sustainable Development Report.

"Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard”. (2024). Global Alliance for Food Security.

“122 million more people pushed into hunger since 2019 due to multiple crises, reveals UN report”. (2023). World Health Organization.

“2024 Global Report on Food Crises”. (2024). Global Network Against Food Crises.

Luke Newton and Eric J. Gordon, Creative Investment Research, 2024