The 2019 Australian aid transparency audit

This report summarises the findings of the 2019 audit of transparency in the Australian Aid Program at the project level. The audit is based on the publication of information on the DFAT website about Australian aid-funded projects in 27 countries and regional programs, and replicates a similar audit conducted in 2016, which closely followed the same methodology of the first audit in 2013. The data show that transparency has deteriorated substantially since 2013 in the early parts of the aid project cycle, but a greater share of projects have reviews and evaluations published online, up 11 percentage points from 35 per cent in 2016 to 46 per cent in 2019. We also found that transparency was greater on average for larger projects, and that projects that were transparent early in the project cycle tended to stay that way. The report makes a number of recommendations related to strengthening aid transparency.