New info system on foreign aid in Somalia aims to increase effective use of funds, build public trust and strengthen the government’s response to COVID-19
A one-stop shop providing the public with information about all foreign assistance received by Somalia has been launched by the Federal Government of Somalia and UNDP.
The new Aid Information Management System will support Somalia’s government in monitoring and coordinating aid to ensure more transparent, accountable and effective use of assistance — including in coping with the impacts of COVID-19.
It will enable people to easily find out how much aid is coming into Somalia and where and how these funds are being deployed.
What is an Aid Information Management System?
AIMS is a software that stores data on projects, activities, donors and budgets.
All data is entered and updated regularly by government, development and humanitarian partners.
The website provides information on the extent to which projects contribute to a series of markers, such as gender equality and youth empowerment, as well as details about implementation of the Somali National Development Plan, which is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.
Crucially, the new AIMS also incorporates a COVID-19 marker to follow Somalia’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
Having a single source of data in place will help to identify possible synergies and avoid overlaps and delays in aid efforts.
Somali-led and Somali-owned, the system is easy-to-use and has no license costs.
The AIMS is now expected to become the primary source of aid data in Somalia, contributing to improved evidence-based decision-making, strengthened humanitarian-development-peace coordination and enhanced development effectiveness and accountability.
How did we put it together?
The AIMS was developed by the Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development, UNDP, the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator and the World Bank.
A commission composed of UNDP and World Bank consultants was tasked by the Somali government with reviewing the country’s existing aid information management system.
The review included a series of consultations aimed at identifying the expectations of Somali stakeholders and partners on how to best capture, access and manage aid information in the country.
A key finding was that the old system was being under-used, primarily because it was too cumbersome to use, with no less than 81 data-entry fields to complete.
We further identified a clear need to have a Somali-led and Somali-owned system that was easy-to-use, intuitive, focused on relevant data, fully transparent, open sourced and sustainable in terms of maintenance.
All parties agreed on the priority of ensuring the reporting process was as simple as possible.
Following the review, UNDP recruited consultants to work in close collaboration with the Somali government on building a new aid information management system that responded to the identified demands.
Together, we focussed on developing a user-friendly digital system to overcome the shortfalls of the previous system of manual collection of data on aid. For example, the new system reduces the data-entry fields to 25 fields, easing and speeding up access to accurate data.
The AIMS incorporates and builds upon data previously collected on aid to Somalia. It is already populated with nearly 700 projects, aligned with the International Aid Transparency Initiative standards and is available free of charge to any other country.
By providing comprehensive and accurate data, the improved system can contribute to building public trust in institutions.
But building and sustaining such trust will require a collective effort to ensure all data is correct and relevant.
Learn more about AIMS and how you too can contribute at:
Blog by: Pau Blanquer
