Transparency of Public Aid

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the French Development Agency (AFD) commit to strengthen transparency of public aid. The AFD implemented a process to publish information on certain types of operation. The agency also participates in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) [OGP 3].

Completion Status:
Partially fulfilled

Commitment filtering:

Specific:yes

The commitment is specific because it identifies “transparency of public aid” as a sufficiently narrow policy area. It also mentions two anti-corruption mechanisms: 1) an internal AFD publishing process and 2) the publication of development aid information via the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). However, these are merely a description of existing anti-corruption work around aid transparency. The commitment also states that it is connected to commitment 3 in the French OGP Action Plan 2018-2020, “Improving transparency in public development aid.”[1]

[1] OGP, France National Action Plan 2018-2020, p.13, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/France-Action-Plan-2018-2020-English.pdf

Measurable:yes

Based on the wording of the commitment, no measurable actions can be identified for how France aims to strengthen the transparency of public aid. However, via the roadmap of the OGP Action Plan commitment 3, we identified five measurable actions in relation to this objective.



Last updated: 22 October 2022
Share: twitter email twitter twitter print
Evaluation:

The AFD has been publishing its data on public aid since 2014 (and has been a member of IATI since 2016). The AFD has its own open data registry[1] and aims to comply with the publication standards promoted by the IATI.[2]

The commitment was monitored in line with commitment 3 in the French OGP Action Plan 2018-2020, “Improving transparency in public development aid.”[3]

8.1  Extending publication of data on public development aid to new geographical areas Fulfilled

Since 2018, the scope of published data has been expanded geographically, from 36 to 47 countries, according to government self-assessment.[4]

8.2  Publishing data on public development aid provided by new players such as Proparco

 

Fulfilled

Information on MEAE and AFD Group development projects (including Proparco) is published on a joint MEAE/AFD aid transparency website set up in 2016, which lists projects according to open data standards, and whose data is then converted to the IATI standard. This site includes bilateral official development assistance (ODA) data published by the OECD Development Aid Committee (DAC) and reported by the MEAE and the AFD Group, as well as by the EU concerning projects implemented by French operators with European funding (which are not counted as French ODA by the OECD). Unlike the OECD DAC timetable, which is annual, AFD Group data is updated monthly. The site also includes qualitative and budgetary aspects of AFD.[5] Since 2018 and in line with commitments, the scope of published data has been expanded in terms of the information made available online, with publication extended to non-sovereign financing and project evaluation summaries. The scope has also been expanded in terms of the structures concerned, with data on Proparco’s activities published since 2019.[6]

8.3 Merging publication of data onto a single platform. Fulfilled

Development projects by MEAE and AFD are openly published on the data.gouv.fr platform as well as on a single platform (http://www.transparence-aide.gouv.fr/).

8.4  Publishing data on the impact and/or results of AFD projects.

 

Not fulfilled

According to the OGP IRM information published regarding project impact and result is still limited to project objectives at best. The government self-assessment indicated that the publication of impact data is currently under discussion.[7]

8.5  Continuing to provide the OECD Development Aid Committee with quality data for publication, in compliance with the OECD latest standards. Fulfilled

The MEAE and AFD continue to provide the OECD DAC with data. In March and July, France provided the OECD with its official ODA statistics, which are verified and validated by the OECD and constitute the only source of public, verified and comparable data on ODA (https://data.oecd.org/fr).[8]

Overall, we consider the commitment partially fulfilled, because most of the actions mentioned in the OGP action plan have been completed or are being implemented.

 

Challenges to effective commitment implementation
In autumn 2021, an investigation by the NGO Disclose and the online magazine Mediapart indicated transparency issues and that the AFD hides behind banking secrecy.[9] The lack of transparency “in procedures, impact studies, public inquiry or disbursements” was also highlighted in a 2020 report by the Court of Auditors.[10] The organisation Publish What You Fund also criticises the AFD for lack of transparency in its budgets and performance monitoring.[11]  Despite slight improvements in its 2022 Aid Transparency Index score, the AFD is still lagging behind other development agencies and organisations.[12] Mediapart and Disclose further criticise errors in the AFD’s open data portal, concluding that “project descriptions are regularly incomplete, the dates inconsistent – when the data is not simply missing”.[13]

 

Opportunities to accelerate commitment implementation
The Law of 4 August 2021 on programming for solidarity development and the fight against global inequalities will push forward France’s commitment to aid transparency.[14] The programming law states that the government shall set up, “an open database grouping together information on France’s bilateral and multilateral ODA”.[15] Since August 2022 the AFD publishes this database that brings together all the data related to France’s official development assistance from 2018 to 2020. The data relating to the year 2021 are currently being verified and will be published as soon as it is validated by OECD.[16]

 

Recommendations
  • Follow the recommendations of the latest Publish What You Fund report, MAEA and AFD should improve the comprehensiveness of data publication, publish more data on evaluations of ODA programmes and improve data quality.[17]
  • Publish data on the impact of AFD projects.
  • Impose more transparency on private enterprises benefitting from public procurement. This could take the form of publishing accounting data in an open format for firms receiving public aid or under public procurement contracts.

 

[1] AFD, View our data, https://opendata.afd.fr/explore/?sort=modified

[2] International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), https://iatistandard.org/en/

[3] OGP, France National Action Plan 2018-2020, p.12, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/France-Action-Plan-2018-2020-English.pdf

[4] OGP, Transparency of Development Aid (FR0032), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/france/commitments/FR0032/

[5] AFD, Development aid data, https://afd.opendatasoft.com/page/accueil/

[6] Written answer from the MEAE to a query from Transparency International France, 22 November 2021.

[7] OGP, Transparency of Development Aid (FR0032), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/members/france/commitments/FR0032/

[8] Written answer from the MEAE, 22 November 2021.

[9] Mediapart, The excesses of French development aid, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/270921/les-derives-de-l-aide-francaise-au-developpement

[10] Cour des comptes, Strategic Management of Operators of External State Actions by the Ministry of Europe aand Foreign Affairs, https://www.vie-publique.fr/sites/default/files/rapport/pdf/274503.pdf

[11] Publish What You Fund, Aid Transparency Index 2022 – France – French Development Agency (AFD), https://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/the-index/2022/france-french-development-agency-afd/

[12] Publish What You Fund, Aid Transparency Index 2022, https://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/download/2022-aid-transparency-index-report/

[13] Mediapart, The excesses of French development aid, https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/270921/les-derives-de-l-aide-francaise-au-developpement

[14] French Republic, Law of 4 August 2021 on programming relating to solidarity development and the fight against global inequalities, https://www.vie-publique.fr/loi/277797-loi-4-aout-2021-programmation-aide-publique-developpement-solidaire

[15] French Republic, Law of 4 August 2021 on programming relating to solidarity development and the fight against global inequalities, https://www.vie-publique.fr/loi/277797-loi-4-aout-2021-programmation-aide-publique-developpement-solidaire

[16] Etalab, Official development assistance from France (2018-2020), https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/aide-publique-au-developpement-de-la-france-2018-2020/

[17] Publish What You Fund, Aid Transparency Index 2022 – France – French Development Agency (AFD), https://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/the-index/2022/france-french-development-agency-afd/