Launch aid transparency database (FR0054)

What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Access to information, fiscal transparency and accountability, innovation and technology in support of civic participation in designing and implementing public policy

What is the commitment? To set up a database of open data on France’s bilateral and multilateral official development assistance, in compliance with the planning act on solidarity development and reducing global inequality adopted on 4 August 2021

How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem? In 2014, France stepped up its commitment to transparency on aid by joining the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). Data on France’s official development assistance (ODA) is now available on a number of platforms (the website of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, the joint website of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Development Agency on aid transparency, and data.gouv.fr). The creation of a comprehensive website on French aid, inspired by the websites of other major international lenders (United Kingdom, European Union, United States), will cover a large range of data on France’s ODA. It will be based on the latest technology developments to improve accountability to French citizens by improving access to information.

Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? This commitment will allow for OGP principles to be more widely known by the general public and NGOs, in order to promote greater transparency in the design and implementation of public policy. This commitment will be implemented in close collaboration between the two ministries and the implementing agency, thereby strengthening interministerial coordination for the transparency of public data.

Additional information The aid transparency website will include the following data:  The ODA data reported annually to the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee: France’s bilateral aid projects (solidarity investment funds for innovative projects, projects of the French Development Agency and Expertise France, FASEP fund, Treasury loans, humanitarian aid, planned food aid, technical assistance, budget support, etc.); multilateral aid distributed to international organisations and vertical funds; debt relief and debt reduction and development contracts; projects of local and regional authorities and funds that are routed through civil society organisations  Qualitative data on development projects introduced by France, including evaluations of French Development Agency projects and solidarity investment funds for innovative projects  Sector-specific strategies of France’s development policy

Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable Start date End date Finalise the terms of reference and hire a consultant for the technical implementation September 2021 December 2021 Launch the aid transparency website Q1 2022 August 2022

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Set up a database of information on France’s official development assistance

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

(Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs; Ministry for the Economy, Finance and the Recovery; French Development Agency [AFD])

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 4 in: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/france-action-plan-2021-2023/

Context and objectives

Since becoming an International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) member in 2016, the AFD has improved its level of development aid transparency, such as publishing nonfinancial information, including project descriptions and objectives. Notable deficiencies in transparency of financial and budgeting data remain, however, as well as evaluation and performance information in relation to development aid. [1]

The commitment seeks to publish French bilateral and multilateral development aid information as open data on a centralized public database. It includes publishing qualitative data related to development projects, such as evaluations of the AFD and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI). The public database was legally mandated through the law on inclusive development and combatting global inequalities, passed in August 2021. [2] This commitment says that it takes inspiration from similar aid transparency platforms in the United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union (EU). [3] It is relevant to the OGP value of access to information.

The commitment continues France’s previous OGP action plans to increase transparency of development aid. [4] Previous action plans have led the government to publish information according to the IATI data standard, develop the opendata.afd.fr portal, and expanded the scope of data being published.

Over the past few years, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEFA) has held various discussions on the issue with civil society representatives (such as during a workshop on aid transparency, and during the statistical peer review of France conducted by OECD). In February 2021, MEFA invited civil society to discuss the government’s commitment proposal as part of the OGP co-creation process. These discussions could not overcome previously raised disagreements on the scope of the transparency measures proposed. [5] In any case, they were superseded by parliamentary discussions about the law on inclusive development, which led to several meetings with civil society. In dialogue with parliament and government, civil society successfully advocated for more transparency in aid data, and pushed for the inclusion of detailed information. Coordination Sud proposed that the future database cover all recipients of development aid (including public and private organizations) for both grants and loans and publish data that include total budgets, budget breakdowns, social and environmental impact analysis, results of the call for tenders process, midterm reviews and evaluations, and final evaluations. [6] This level of specificity was not fully included in the legislation.

Potential for results:Modest

Alongside MEFA and AFD, the commitment is supported by the Ministry of Economy. This reflects broader engagement across institutions to pull together information about aid from across the French state and at all levels. Having aid information handled by the Ministry of Economy (relating largely to local government spending) as well as information maintained by MEFA and AFD is expected to help to give a more complete and accurate picture of aid spending by the French state as a whole.

Information about development aid that is publicly available is currently distributed across several databases held and maintained by different ministries and local governments. Not all the datasets maintained by ministries are currently publicly available. An interviewed civil society representative confirmed that the data available across the existing platforms are sometimes inconsistent or contradictory, meaning that the information must be cross-checked with other databases held by organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) or confirmed through conversations with institutions. [7] Having development aid information aggregated in one place would help ensure that the published data are consistent. Civil society and the OECD see a single database as a positive step [8] because it will help civil society and funders track implementation of specific development aid programs more efficiently.

The commitment indicates that more information, such as evaluation data, may be included in the database, although this possibility is raised only in connection with AFD and FSPI funds. A representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that new information on the database would include evaluation data, multilateral aid, disaggregated local government spending on aid, debt relief data, results of calls for projects, and projects run by embassies, which will be available according to the IATI open data standard. [9] A significant long-term challenge to this commitment is about the breadth of information to be included in the database, how far back in time the data will go, and the timing of publication. The lack of clarity on this point makes the potential for results modest rather than substantial.

Civil society is interested in having access to development aid information that is currently not published, including the tender documents and audit reports on development aid from the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the AFD, as well as information on grants and loans, total budgets, budget breakdowns, social and environmental impact analyses, results of the call for tenders process, mid-term reviews and evaluations, and final evaluations. [10] In particular, public access to evaluation information would ensure that the public and civil society can follow the spending and impact of different development aid projects from start to finish and see whether they met their stated objectives. [11] CSOs have also said that they would prioritize increased transparency of pre-existing tools and a parliamentary monitoring body, over the creation of a new centralized database. [12]

Although improving and consolidating aid data disclosure is a positive step towards enhancing access to aid information in France, the potential for results are modest. The database consolidates already-existing information and would publish new information, but it is not clear yet that this information is a priority for data users, or whether the amount of information or level of detail would substantially improve understanding around France’s international aid.

Opportunities, challenges and recommendations during implementation

The commitment should avoid replicating publication of information already published on the OECD database.

It provides an opportunity for analysis of the published data to shape future funding policies in development aid. Such analyses could be conducted by nongovernment stakeholders, such as civil society, as well as by government departments or even through parliamentary committees focused on development policy. These analyses could also take into account information beyond the published data to further feed into debate and decisions of funding of development policies and their impact.

To address these potential challenges and make the most of opportunities in implementation of this commitment, the IRM recommends the following actions:

● Expand the scope of published development aid data to include financial and budgeting data as well as evaluation and performance information: This change would address the deficiencies in transparency outlined by Publish What You Fund’s Aid Transparency Index. [13] The database could include specific fields that address deficiencies in financial, budgeting, evaluation, and performance data as well as results of the calls for proposals, impact assessments, and midterms reviews. Expanding the scope of information greatly increases the ability to follow development aid spending and check the quality and efficiency of public spending. A CSO said that a centralized database with more information available would enable it to track specific aid programs, grants, and loans and ensure that implementation is in line with policy objectives or government communications. [14] Civil society has also expressed interest in potentially tracking gender equality funding, climate impacts, and transparency of private sector–funded projects. [15]

● Engage with civil society and relevant stakeholders before and after the launch of the database to discuss the data points and information that should be included: This engagement should include publishing feedback on why suggested information and data are included or not. When the database is online, opportunities should be created for further engagement with nongovernment actors on closing loopholes and improving the quality of the data published. Available information should also be broad enough in scope to be useful, accurate, and published in open formats. A dialogue could be structured so that discussions can build into the next co-creation process, should there be a need for more commitments in this area. Germany’s 2017–2019 Action Plan involved close dialogue with civil society on improving the quality of IATI data, [16] and its 2019–2021 Action Plan entailed creating a feedback mechanism on the foreign aid portal to flag issues in the data. [17]

● Use the data for informed debate and to provide an evidence base for policy and funding decisions: Civil society, government departments, and even parliamentary committees could feed into debate and decisions about funding of development policies and their impact, with their analyses of the published data. They can link these data with other sources and further enrich the evidence base for policy recommendations, decisions, and funding.

● Ensure that published data go back at least five years and that data are regularly updated: Currently, data are not published in a timely or consistent manner; updates that are published, such as with the OECD, go through a verification process, which delays their publication. [18] Implementation could address this limitation by including clear reporting requirements for aid providers and stipulating how often data should be updated (for example, quarterly). Time stamps on the published data would ensure that users know when the data were last updated.