FinMin underscores Nepal’s commitment to aid transparency «

FinMin underscores Nepal’s commitment to aid transparency

Nepal has committed to aid transparency with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).
Delivering remarks to Technical Advisory Group (TAG) members here in Kathmandu on Thursday Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada reaffirmed Nepal’s commitment to IATI, underscoring the importance of partner countries. He noted that this data is crucial to maximise the impact of all development resources and meet the country’s own development priorities.
In Nepal, international development cooperation is a key component of the overall development financing landscape. In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, over $1.5 billion of aid was disbursed in Nepal, and in recent years, aid has accounted for about 25 per cent of the national budget annually. The National Planning Commission (NPC) estimates that to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aid flows to Nepal must double from 2016 levels.
UNDP Country Director Renaud Meyer and DFID Nepal Head of Office Rurik Marsden also attended the meeting, signaling strong support for IATI from the multi-lateral and development partner communities.
Renaud Meyer, on the occasion, noted in his opening remarks that, ‘The success of IATI reflects its relevance as well as the consensus that accurate and transparent development data is critical for action at the country level’.
Started as a ‘coalition of the willing’ of 14 development partners in 2008, IATI has now over 90 members and close to 900 publishers who have recognised the importance of high-quality funding data in support of sustainable development. More than 1.1 million development projects are now published and regularly updated according to the global reporting Standard known as the IATI Standard.
As Coordinator of the IATI Secretariat, the United Nations Development Programme will continue to advocate for and support increased use of IATI data at the county level for maximum sustainable development and impactful responses to poverty and crises.
The meeting started on Tuesday, witnessed more than 160 expert practitioners from governments, development partners, the private sector and civil society in Kathmandu. They discussed on increasing the transparency of external resources to partner countries like Nepal. This annual meeting of the International Aid Transparency Initiative’s TAG marked the first time the technical group has met in Asia.
IATI was established to support partner countries by improving the availability of data on aid flows, enabling more effective planning and management of national budgets. At the same time, publishing data to IATI allows development partners to meet their own commitments on transparency, and for civil society and the media to hold governments to account for the use of resources.
Nearly 900 organisations have published their data to IATI. The IATI publishers include a broad range of organisations, from donor governments, development finance institutions and UN agencies to non-governmental organisations, foundations and private sector organisations.
IATI supports organisations to publish a range of information about their spending and activities according to the rules IATI Standard. For example, organisations can publish details of their future budgets, the locations of their projects, or the results that have been achieved.
Last year, $146 billion of development and humanitarian spending was published.
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