UAE donor organizations are committed to applying international standards in reporting their foreign aid activities

This came in a workshop conducted by the UAE Office for the Coordination of Foreign Aid (OCFA) on its "Foreign Aid Reporting Framework".

The event aimed to share and build on the experience of the 2009-2011 foreign aid reporting cycles, enhance the quality of information, and unify the UAE efforts in providing foreign aid.

OCFA has developed a comprehensive framework for reporting the country's foreign aid that is compatible with the requirements of international bodies such as the UN and OECD. The framework has been updated in response to comments from UAE donor organisations during the 2009-2011 reporting cycles, and includes mechanisms for reporting data electronically as well as standards and guidelines on how to categorise the forms of aid.

HE Sultan Al Shamsi, Executive Director of OCFA said: "OCFA and its key partners are committed to achieving higher levels of transparency and understanding about the UAE's foreign aid activities. Providing project-level information such as the exact location, number of people who have been assisted, and the partners who have helped to implement the projects, will allow OCFA to provide a much more useful and comprehensive analysis," Al Shamsi said.

"In advance of the 2012 data collection process, OCFA would like to invite its key partners to familiarize them with the core components of the UAE Reporting Framework, highlight the modifications that have been made in response to donors' feedback, and explore some of the lessons learned from the 2009-2011 reporting cycles.

OCFA also stresses on the importance of committing to the timelines set in the project plans of the reporting cycle to produce the foreign aid report in a timely manner," he continued.

Participants in the workshop recommended enhancing the coordination with donors and stressed on the importance of documenting UAE's foreign aid to enhance transparency and accountability. They also recommended encouraging UAE donors to provide detailed information about their foreign aid activities to be included in the 2012 UAE Foreign Aid Report, and highlighted the importance of documenting aid records on the Foreign Aid Tracking Service (FATS) which is available on OCFA's website at ocfa.gov.ae, as well as the importance of having specialized employees for data entry in each donor organization.