Ownership in Practice: Information – Let countries know what donors are doing

Overview

Oxfam America has been recommending reforms to US foreign aid practice to make it more responsive to and supportive of countries’ own development priorities. A first step in this direction is improving the information the US providesrecipient countries on its foreign aid. In particular, Oxfam is calling for the US to provide countries with information that is more transparent and predictable.

How would more transparency and predictability improve the usefulness of US aid on the ground? To find out, Oxfam interviewed 200 representatives from governments, civil society organizations, and US aid agencies, contractors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that implement aid programs in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, and Rwanda.