The Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) is a multi-donor trust fund, or financing mechanism; Its key characteristic is that all funds are on-budget; Established in 2002, financing non-security related recurrent costs. ARTF is the largest single source of external financing ($7B) Coordinates funding from 33 donors Supports recurrent financing, policy reforms, O&M, and development financing Delivers results within key sectors including education, health, PFM and rural development (NSP) through ongoing & new NPPs – alignment key; Strong fiduciary framework: All operations are supported by government-wide controls. Extra arrangements in place incl. monitoring agent (compensates for lack of efficient internal audit function) and a supervisory agent

1. THE WORLD BANK
ARTF TRANSPARENCY

2. WHAT IS THE ARTF?
■ ARTF is a multi-donor trust fund, or financing mechanism;
■ Its key characteristic is that all funds are on-budget;
■ Established in 2002, financing non-security related recurrent costs;
■ …but ARTF has evolved:
 The largest single source of external financing ($7 bn)
 Coordinates funding from 33 donors
 Supports recurrent financing, policy reforms, O&M, and development
financing
 Delivers results within key sectors including education, health, PFM and
rural development (NSP) through ongoing & new NPPs – alignment key;
 Strong fiduciary framework: All operations are supported by government-
wide controls. Extra arrangements in place incl. monitoring agent
(compensates for lack of efficient internal audit function) and a supervisory
agent.
External Review 2012: Key message: ARTF “fit for purpose”; delivering
good results in key areas.
www.artf.af

3. TRANSPARENCY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY KEY
■ Transparency and accountability are critical to
credibility;
■ Increased funding—increased scrutiny and need for
strengthened communication;
■ Highlight that ARTF is a financing mechanism for
funding of GoA’s priorities;
■ Legal reporting requirements, need to go further.
www.artf.af

4. MAIN AUDIENCES
Push for open data being led by MoF and Bank w. four main
audiences:
1. Donors, Donors, Donors:
 While gov is key counterpart, donors key to continued
financing;
 Challenging: high demand, diverse needs.
2. Government counterparts, incl. MoF and line ministries:
 Afghanistan has done well on open data;
 Systems in need of further strengthening, esp. line
ministries;
 Gov uses ARTF website and WB.org
3. Afghan people:
 limited access to internet so mainly urban elites;
 Exploring options for using online tools for feedback
mechanisms/monitoring.
4. Media, universities, think tanks etc.:www.artf.af

5. GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY
www.artf.af
International Budget Partnership, Open Budget
Survey, http://internationalbudget.org

6. CHALLENGES
Data scarcity – reengagement in 2002 but focus on
data fairly recent. Increasing funding scarcity lead to
need for validation of resource use and therefore data;
But, the environment poses significant challenges–
remoteness, low capacity and insecurity;
This impacts ability to collect data;
Lack of data result in pressure to develop new data
sources and share available data between different
actors;
Data sensitivity – not all data can be easily shared as it
may result in security risks to communities, government
staff and/or the Bank.
www.artf.af

7. OLD AND NEW
■ From process to results reporting –
Traditional Reporting:
 Financial and narrative;
 Print and online.
 Increased Interaction
 Working groups;
 Meetings and presentations.
 Moving to online tools
 Developing new reporting tools;
 Focus on interactive tools;
 Mapping;
 Data accessibility;
 Openness and transparency.
www.artf.af

8. NEW WEBSITE
■ A new website provided an improved platform

9. STRENGTHENED TRANSPARENCY
■ Easy access to documents, incl. meeting
minutes and more.
www.artf.af

10. MORE INFORMATION
■ Beneficiaries,
Government,
donors have
easy access
to information
on ARTF
portfolio and
funding
www.artf.af

11. ARTF - FROM REPORTING TO
ENGAGEMENT
www.artf.af

12. DATA FOR RESULTS PILOT
■ Demand from Donors around more frequent, more
digestible results data
■ Leverage open data and visualizations to make
results data more broadly accessible
■ Frequent update of results to help TTLs and
stakeholders make data-informed project decisions
■ Follow the ARTF scorecard with focus on Gender
www.artf.af
(representative mock-up, project in proce

13. INNOVATIVE ELEMENTS—
MAPPING AND MOBILE
SUPERVISION
www.artf.af

14. INNOVATIVE ELEMENTS – MAPPING
RESULTS
www.artf.af

15. WHAT’S NEXT
■ Continue to improve ARTF data openness (when
possible), especially to strengthen results agenda;
■ Explore using open data and website as tools to
strengthen communication with communities in
Afghanistan to:
 Collect data and support monitoring and results reporting;
 Build feedback loops to Gov/Bank for Bank projects.
■ Reach out to CSOs and universities to ensure use of
data;
■ Work with champions in MoF to support their open data
agenda (led by WBI).
www.artf.af

16. www.artf.af
Thank you!
www.artf.af
Ditte Fallesen
af.linkedin.com/pub/ditte-m-fallesen/1/789/598
• af.linkedin.com/pub/ditte-m-fallesen/1/789/598