Good information is essential to ensuring that U.S. international assistance delivers meaningful, sustainable results.
Policymakers, taxpayers, partner countries, and affected communities should be able to understand how U.S. assistance is allocated, what it is intended to achieve, who is implementing it, and what results it delivers. Without clear, accessible information, it is difficult to assess whether resources are being used effectively, lessons are being applied, and programs are achieving their intended impact.
For two decades, bipartisan efforts across Congress and the executive branch have helped strengthen the effectiveness of U.S. international assistance by advancing greater transparency, stronger evaluation and learning practices, and more effective partnerships – including with local organizations. These reforms, led by MFAN, have helped improve both the accountability and effectiveness of U.S. international assistance.
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Transparency is a cornerstone of effective and accountable U.S. international assistance.
Public access to clear, reliable information about how assistance is allocated, implemented, and evaluated is essential for effective oversight, informed policymaking, and stronger development outcomes. Transparency helps policymakers, taxpayers, implementing partners, and affected communities better understand where resources are going, what they are intended to achieve, and whether programs are delivering results. By making performance and results visible, transparency strengthens the evidence base for decision-making and helps ensure that programs continuously improve and deliver greater impact over time.
The U.S. government has made important bipartisan progress in strengthening aid transparency over the past decade. In 2013, the State Department launched ForeignAssistance.gov, creating a centralized platform for U.S. foreign assistance data and reporting to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). In 2016, the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act (FATAA) codified these efforts by requiring agencies implementing foreign assistance programs to publish comprehensive, timely, and comparable project-level information on ForeignAssistance.gov on a quarterly basis, while also strengthening requirements for monitoring, evaluation, and public reporting.
MFAN has long supported efforts to improve the accessibility, quality, and usefulness of U.S. foreign assistance data. This included advocating for the integration of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) separate transparency dashboard with ForeignAssistance.gov, bringing together the strengths of both systems into a single platform and improving efficiency, consistency, and public access to information.
U.S. agencies including USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief also took steps to improve how data is collected, managed, and used – including by local partners. Continued investment in stronger information systems and more accessible reporting will be essential to ensuring transparency keeps pace with the evolving U.S. international assistance landscape.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Strong monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems are essential to ensuring that U.S. international assistance delivers results, adapts to changing circumstances, and continuously improves over time.
MFAN supports continued efforts to strengthen the use of MEL across U.S. international assistance programs – including rigorous impact evaluation where appropriate – to ensure evidence is consistently translated into smarter policy, stronger programs, and more effective, accountable, and adaptive assistance.
Effective MEL goes beyond collecting data for accountability purposes. It helps policymakers and implementing agencies understand what is working, what is not, and how programs can be adjusted to improve effectiveness and long-term impact. By integrating evidence into decision-making, MEL strengthens both program performance and policy outcomes.
Within the U.S. government, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is widely regarded as the gold standard for evidence-based programming. Through its independent evaluations, public reporting requirements, and strong emphasis on organizational learning, MCC has demonstrated how rigorous evidence and continuous learning can improve program design, implementation, and impact.
Other agencies have also made important progress. Requirements established through the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act (FATAA), subsequent congressional directives, and the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 have helped strengthen monitoring, evaluation, transparency, and agency learning agendas across the U.S. government. USAID expanded its focus on learning through initiatives such as its Self-Reliance Learning Agenda and subsequent agency-wide learning efforts, while the State Department published its own Learning Agenda in response to the Evidence Act.
Despite these advances, implementation remains uneven. While agencies increasingly collect and report data, evidence is not always systematically used to inform decision-making, adapt programs, or strengthen future investments. The State Department, in particular, continues to face challenges in institutionalizing robust evaluation and learning practices at the scale demonstrated by MCC.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has played an important role in assessing implementation of monitoring, evaluation, and learning requirements across U.S. foreign assistance agencies, and MFAN continues to monitor GAO recommendations in this area.
