Of the 50 nations on this list, only two are worse than Australia

The country's aid program is also yet to meet its own targets for addressing gender equality and climate change, according to its own reporting.

The 2024 score in the International Aid Transparency Index (IATI) is Australia's lowest ranking ever, after the reporting of key aid data was paused under the former Coalition government in 2019.

Australia is ranked 48th out of 50 countries and multinational donor organisations on the international benchmark index, ahead of China but behind Saudi Arabia and the United States and is given a "poor rating".

Upon coming to office, the Albanese government committed to an overhaul of the country's international development efforts, however the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is yet to finalise a portal where the data on where the money is going can be accessed.

After pausing reporting to IATI in 2019, Australia's score dropped to 41.9 in 2022, as some legacy data could be incorporated.

The lower score, 27.2, in 2024 followed no activity data published in 2023.

Jocelyn Condon, chief of policy and advocacy at the Australian Council for International Development said Australia's aid program was increasingly opaque.

"Aid transparency matters," Ms Condon said. "Open and transparent data to allow Australians to easily find out how the government spends crucial official development assistance."

Ms Condon said aid was more effective when it was transparent about where the money was going and who it was supporting, as this could lead to better coordination with non-government bodies.

"Increasing transparency is crucial to bolster the coordination, accountability and effectiveness of development and humanitarian assistance for the world's poorest and most vulnerable people," she said.

Minister for the Pacific and International Development Pat Conroy said the government was committed to restarting reporting on the country's aid program.

"As part of our commitment to transparency and accountability across the international development program, we will recommence reporting to the IATI," he said.

"We expect our work to see Australia's rating rise over the coming years."

As part of the new International Development Policy, there are commitments to additional transparency measures, including new investments in data analytics and an annual performance report.

Civil society organisations are calling for the government to be more transparent with how it reports the spending of the aid budget in order for a clear picture of the effectiveness of government spending to emerge.

In April 2024, DFAT published its evaluation of the Australian aid program in 2022-23. The report found the program met its target for effective investments, however missed its target for addressing gender equality, with 75 per cent of investments instead of 80 per cent effectively addressing gender equality.

The program is yet to begin reporting on its climate change objective, with a target of at least half of new bilateral and regional investments having a climate change objective in the first reporting year, 2024-25.

The last year that figures were available, 2021-22, 26 per cent of all investments had a climate change objective.

Other indicators, such as how much funding was delivered through partnerships, reporting against monitored, evaluation and learning plans, and the inclusion of First Nations perspectives, were also still in progress.