When Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, “Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant” he was talking about the virtues of transparency on big business. But the same might be said of international aid. And sunlight doesn’t just disinfect; it helps things grow and prosper. It is to further just such transparency that Publish What You Fund was formed. It is a project of Tiri, an independent nonprofit organization that works with governments, business, and civil society to find practical solutions to, as it puts it, “make integrity work.” Publish What You Fund works to encourage donor governments and other funders of aid to developing nations to make public what they are giving and to whom in a comprehensive, comparable, and timely way. Not only does such disclosure help ensure that aid money goes where it is intended, but it also empowers citizens in those countries to have a larger say in the policies of their own governments.
To learn more about Publish What You Fund’s work, visit its website at www.publishwhatyoufund.org.