September 29, 2026
Dear readers,
TAI has a busy week rushing between events and conversations during UN General Assembly and New York Climate Week. AI was constantly mentioned, but not far behind was the theme of debt and the need for more effective mechanisms for debt restructuring (more on that below). So, we start with a reminder from Alex Thurston on the complex political economy of debt deals, looking at Senegal’s restructuring debates.
Now, on to the full Weekly covering everything from democracy narratives to tax to civic space to funder exits.
Happy reading!
TAI team
What's New
Hope and Homes for Children calls for greater accountability in protecting children living in institutional care before conflict strikes. The charity’s Children Confined in Conflict campaign urges funders and humanitarian actors to act on known risks by supporting family-based care and locally led preparedness. Together with Clifford Chance, the organization is developing a legal framework for "anticipatory accountability" to strengthen obligations to protect children before and during conflict. Read the campaign research.
In “Democracy Won’t Win on Facts Alone,” Vukasin Petrovic explores how democratic movements can make a more compelling case by connecting democracy to the stories, characters, and fandoms people already care about. The piece is part of the “Plural Futures for Democracy” edited volume from the Thinking and Working Politically Community of Practice.
This case study examines Freetown’s efforts to transform its property tax system following the 2018 election of Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr. It looks at how the city sought to increase local revenue while navigating political polarization, weak institutions, elite resistance, and the challenge of maintaining public trust.
The Arab Watch Coalition (AWC) is responding to the World Bank Group’s decision to merge its three accountability mechanisms into a single Independent Accountability Mechanism. AWC is calling for the new framework to retain the strongest existing protections, improve access for affected communities, strengthen management accountability, and ensure meaningful remedy.
New research from the Brookings Institution and Japan International Cooperation Agency examines the relationship between nature, people, and prosperity, and why current approaches to accounting for these relationships are failing all three.
Carnegie’s Digital Democracy Network has published ten essays on democratic disruption and technological change, covering digital repression, responses to it, AI and power, sovereignty, China’s normative policy agenda, and AI in war. Explore “The Disruptive Politics of AI.”
During New York Climate Week, the United Nations announced new support for six mineral-rich countries in Africa and Asia through a country platform mechanism for value chain development. Suneeta Kaimal of the Natural Resource Governance Institute described the initiative as an important step toward placing equity and justice at the center of minerals governance.
In “The Next Journalism,” Tom Rosenstiel explores how journalism must change to serve democracy in a fragmented, digital, AI-shaped information environment, and offers ten practical approaches supported by case studies and historical analysis.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have approved the first major overhaul since 2017 of their Debt Sustainability Framework for Low-Income Countries. The reforms add analysis of domestic debt and long-term development needs, refine debt-carrying capacity measures, and strengthen tools and incentives for debt transparency.
In New York this past week, leaders rallied behind calls for an International Panel on Inequality. Jenny Ricks argues that the panel should remain closely connected to the movements and communities that made its work necessary, treating them as partners rather than an audience for its findings.
The Roosevelt Institute examines the debate around corporate taxation in the United States. In “Why Doesn’t the US Tax Its Big Corporations More? The Myth of ‘Global Tax Competitiveness,’” Zorka Milin challenges the idea that lower corporate taxes are necessary for global competitiveness and considers the role of stronger corporate taxation in funding public investment.
The OECD has published its five-year report on the implementation of the 2021 DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance. The report finds donor progress alongside persistent challenges around civic space, engagement with civil society, and CSO accountability.
From Our Members
HILTON FOUNDATION: Shares how lessons from the energy sector could help expand safe water services in remote communities, including the role of philanthropy, governments, and social entrepreneurs in developing new financing models.
HUMANITY UNITED: Alongside the African Coaching Network, and Sauti Bridge, HU explores how evaluation can better capture movements as complex adaptive systems. Their “Roots, Branches, and Fruits” framework considers both movement achievements and the often-unseen labor and costs involved in sustaining them.
MOTT FOUNDATION: Has launched a second round of “Youth Choice Awards,” inviting young people in Flint to propose ideas for their community by October 9. The program will award 100 grants of $1,926 each, following 50 grants already supporting projects from mentoring and arts clubs to mental health initiatives and food programs.
PACKARD FOUNDATION: President and CEO Nancy Lindborg shares “Four Principles for Sustaining Progress in an Uncertain World,” drawing on decades of work with partners to consider how philanthropy can support lasting progress amid shrinking development finance and civic space. The principles include funding at the intersections, putting local leadership at the center, protecting civic space, and letting evidence guide the work.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING:
The conversations shaping a more accountable and inclusive future are already happening. Explore the TAI Collaborative YouTube channel for expert interviews, panel discussions, podcasts, and practical conversations on philanthropy, participatory governance, gender equity, ethical grantmaking, and natural resource governance. Subscribe and don't miss new videos and conversations.
TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDERS
A new DevexPro interview with Eszter Filippinyi and Cheri-Leigh Erasmus examines responsible funder exits, including the importance of trust, transparent communication, non-financial support, and creating space for civil society partners to convene, develop ideas, and test new approaches. Devex also spoke with Erin Sines and Amina Salihu from the MacArthur Foundation about lessons from the On Nigeria Program’s exit experience.
Soheila Comninos, Secretariat Lead of the Funders’ Roundtable on the Future of Development, examines what country-led development means for civil society and philanthropy in a new Devex opinion piece. She argues that national ownership should include meaningful opportunities for communities and independent organizations to shape priorities and hold institutions accountable.
Jennifer Xia Spradling and Patrick Schmitt from FreeWill revisit in Stanford Social Innovation Review the projected $30 trillion Baby Boomer wealth transfer, and examine the growth of planned giving and the opportunity for foundations to help nonprofits develop sustainable bequest programs and diversify revenue.
The 2026 “World Giving Report: Donor Insights” from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) examines giving across 105 countries. Six in ten people donated in 2025, with giving closely linked to community belonging, trust, and understanding of local impact. Transparency was the leading factor donors said would encourage them to give more.
ESSENTIAL READING:
An investigative series by the Financial Times reveals the workings of a massive $6.9bn sanctions evasion scheme engineered by Russian authorities, but a concluding editorial argues that the sanctions are not pointless. Rather than despair over shortcomings that let Russia still find back doors into the global banking system, there should be a “redoubling of efforts to close the loopholes.”
Focused Topic of the Week
Civic Space Shrinks, But What’s Holding the Line?
Civic space rarely disappears all at once. More often, it narrows gradually, through new restrictions, administrative burdens, weakened protections, and growing risks for the people and organizations willing to speak, organize, and challenge power. Last week, we looked at how the information, networks, and institutions that help people understand and act on these pressures are part of the same civic infrastructure. This week we look at the changes needed to keep space open.
TAI was glad to join the launch of a new publication from the Funders Initiative for Civil Society developed with support of the Packard Foundation, that highlights how effective climate action depends on the freedoms and institutions that allow people to participate, access information, organize, and hold decision-makers and corporations accountable. As these conditions weaken, so does the space for meaningful action.
Across Latin America, these pressures are taking increasingly concrete forms. A new report facilitated by the Thomson Reuters Foundation with Fundamedios identifies four emerging regulatory risks across ten countries, from growing administrative burdens and disproportionate sanctions to the use of public security measures to control civil society and increasingly stigmatizing narratives. The OECD’s five-year review of its recommendation on enabling civil society similarly finds progress alongside persistent challenges in protecting civic space, supporting civil society, and strengthening accountability.
The consequences can become far more severe when these pressures go unchecked. The UC Berkeley Human Rights Center’s “Under Attack: Targeting of Journalists and Human Rights Defenders in Mexico” documents killings, forced disappearances, surveillance, harassment, and extremely high levels of impunity during the 2018-2024 period. For those facing restrictive laws and policies, meanwhile, the European Center for Nonprofit Law (ECNL) and D-Hub have published “Resisting Restrictive Laws: A Practical Guide for Democracy Defenders,” bringing together legal tools and strategies to help civil society respond.
A question arises that goes beyond how civic space is measured or defended: what does it take to keep it open? Laws matter, as do protections, accountability mechanisms, and legal strategies. But so do the resources and relationships that allow people to use them. At a moment when civic action is being steadily contested, protecting it may require more than reacting to each new restriction. It may mean investing in the conditions that allow people to keep organizing, speaking, and imagining what comes next.
JOBS
Multiple openings - Hewlett Foundation
Multiple openings - MacArthur Foundation
Multiple Openings - Gates Foundation
Multiple Openings - Social Action, Development Cooperation, Culture, Disability, and Health Sectors in Spain
Multiple Openings - ClimateWorks Foundation
Regional Director for MesoAmerica - JASS. Deadline: September 30, 2026.
Consultant, HARBOR system usability assessment - Open Ownership, Philippines. Deadline: October 11, 2026.
CALLS
Coefficient Giving has introduced Launchpad Funds, a request for proposals to seed new funds or scale existing ones addressing important, underfunded problems.
The Global South Rising research network is accepting submissions for its third annual symposium. The call includes several governance-related themes and invites contributions examining crisis, mobility, governance, and rights. Deadline: September 30, 2026.
The European Endowment for Democracy provides rolling funding for local democracy organizations in the Eastern Partnership, Middle East and North Africa, and Western Balkans & Turkey.
The Fifth Element invites blog contributions on systems transformation from practitioners and researchers, drawing on both lived experience and analysis across diverse perspectives.
School for Thinktankers, On Think Tanks. February 1-5, 2027.
CALENDAR
WINGSForum 2026 in Montreal under the theme "ACT – Activate, Collaborate, Transcend." Save the date, more details to follow in early 2026. September 28-30, 2026.
China Capital - ICIJ. September 29, 2026, at 12 p.m. ET.
Athens Democracy Forum. September 29-October 1, 2026.
2026 EITI Global Conference. October 8-9, 2026, Brussels, Belgium.
Climate Defenders Demand Accountability - Accountability Counsel. Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, 9:00 AM-12:30 PM, October 9, 2026.
2026 OECD Global Forum on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy. Paris. October 12-13, 2026.
2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group,October 12-18, 2026.
Africa Conference - Resource Justice Network. October 19-20, 2026. Register by October 5.
US Nonprofit Legal Needs: A Funder-Focused Analysis - PILnet. October 21, 2026, from 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT.
Freedom on the Net 2026: Seismic Shifts on the Global Internet - Freedom House. Launch of the 2026 report on global internet freedom. October 22, 2026, from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. ET.
The 2026 African Philanthropy Forum Conference, "Bridge the Divide; Reimagine the Future," takes place October 25–27 in Cape Town. Those interested in attending can contact [email protected].
2026 Aid Transparency Index - Publish What You Fund. November 4, 2026, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. GMT / 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST.
Better Politics Foundation Flagship Gathering - Brussels, November 18–20, 2026.
International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. December 1-4, 2026.
We’d love to hear from you on how we can further improve TAI Weekly to better serve your needs in program management on the transparency, accountability, improved grantmaking and civic space. Please direct your feedback to [email protected] or