By Vivienne Russell | 11 July 2013

The African Development Bank has made progress on its pledge to put principles of openness, good governance and accountability at the heart of the institution.

The bank’s Disclosure and Access to Information Policy was published in February this year, putting transparency at the core of the AfDB’s operations.

According to the Bank, investment in better information leads to better development, enabling citizens and their representatives to monitor the allocation of resources.

At the start of July, the bank published data on a wide range of public and private sector projects in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard. The AfDB is the first multilateral development bank and the second donor (after the United Nations' operating arm)  to publish geocoding on all of its ongoing activities in IATI format.

The bank said it was ‘mindful’ that its transparency intiatives came with significant human and financial resource implications, but was ‘fully persuaded that these are justified’.

It said: ‘Transparency is the only way for the AfDB to conduct its development business.’