Between 2007 and 2012 the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF) program provided about $200 million USD for around 1,000 transparency and accountability projects in about 100 countries. A final review of the program notes “many examples of convincing evidence of improvements in a very wide range of forms of governance” which together, “have contributed to reducing poverty” in target countries.
GTF was PTF’s largest single funder (£2 million GBP) supporting 74 direct action anti-corruption projects implemented by 52 partner CSOs in 21 poor and transition countries. An independent evaluation conducted in 2013 of the PTF projects commissioned by DFID found a “strongly positive impact, exceeding what can reasonably be expected given the scale of its funding.”
Despite the enormous gains made, DFID currently has no plans to learn practical lessons from or continue a facility to fund civil society governance programs. This action represents a wider trend of official donors who remain hesitant to support civil society in demanding more accountable and transparent governance despite broad agreement that they have limited leverage to persuade governments to stop corruption.
Concerned by the missed opportunity to capitalize on its experience, achievements and ideas for holding governments to account, PTF is leading a group of partner organizations that participated in the GTF to call for a new multilateral governance and accountability program and for systematic learning from the GTF-financed innovations.
Click here to read the full letter signed by the Partnership for Transparency Fund, Global Witness, Transparency International, Conciliation Resources, the Wildlife Conservation Society, CAFOD, Christian Aid, and the Overseas Development Institute.
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