TAI Weekly

TAI Weekly | Trust on the Brink? The Fragile State of Information Worldwide

By TAI (Role at TAI)
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TAI Weekly

WHAT'S NEW?

Indigenous and local community-led approaches to deforestation are proving effective in restoring control of ancestral lands to their rightful stewards. Cross-sector collaborations are supporting these rights-based solutions, which demonstrate how empowering communities can slow and even stop deforestation while upholding environmental justice.

A money laundering scheme involving Nigerian officials has surfaced in Aiken, South Carolina, where illicit funds were allegedly funneled through real estate transactions. Concerns are growing over the city’s potential role in international financial crimes, raising urgent calls for tighter oversight and stronger regulatory measures to prevent further abuse.

As the reorganization of U.S. aid threatens economies worldwide, businesses must take a proactive role in sustaining civil society. Cheri-Leigh Erasmus and Blair Glencorse argue that private sector engagement is essential in shifting away from reliance on traditional aid models toward sustainable financing mechanisms.

A new report on tax expenditures in Brazil presents fresh data on state-level tax policies, exposing governance gaps that demand comprehensive reform. Available in English and Portuguese, the findings highlight inefficiencies and inconsistencies that contribute to fiscal imbalances.

Aid transparency remains critical, argue Sally Paxton of Publish What You Fund and George Ingram of the Brookings Institution. The 2016 and 2018 Acts mandate public access to U.S. foreign aid data, but USAID dataset removals weaken oversight. The solution lies in better-quality data, not less of it.

The U.S. government has terminated its Open Government Federal Advisory Committee, marking another departure from past transparency commitments.

A statement from the National Endowment for Democracy highlighted its funding crisis, forcing it to suspend support for nearly 2,000 partners worldwide working on a variety of rule of law and accountability related programs. 

President Trump’s tax policies force OECD policymakers to choose between U.S. dominance and multilateral cooperation at the UN. While the administration pushes unilateral measures, experts see collective global tax negotiations as the best chance in decades to safeguard national revenues and economic sovereignty.

Financial Times reporters dig deep into the holdings of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, former land minister of Bangladesh, highlighting what interim government leader Muhammad Yunus has called “highway robbery” by the elite looting banks. Chowdury and his close family own 315 properties in the UK alone.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has launched a survey to assess challenges faced by civil society organizations over the past year. Open to groups operating in EU member states as well as Serbia, Albania, and North Macedonia, the initiative seeks to identify barriers to civic space and gather recommendations for improvements.

ESSENTIAL WATCHING

The Brookings Institution hosted a discussion on global democratic challenges, featuring Norman Eisen, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Asha Rangappa. Experts explored media fragmentation, authoritarian consolidation, and the link between corruption and democratic decline. Watch the recording for insights on democracy’s future, and read the summary for key takeaways.

FROM OUR MEMBERS

MACARTHUR FOUNDATION: Commits to increasing its payout to 6% for the next two years to help address federal funding shortfalls affecting the social sector. Emphasizing trust-based practices, MacArthur’s John Palfrey calls on philanthropy to step up and mobilize resources to meet urgent needs. That extra 1% of endowment spend could translate to around $150 million.

OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS: Reaffirm their commitment to human rights and democracy, continuing their legacy as the world’s largest private funder in this space. Their work, rooted in a vision of shared humanity, seeks to hold governments accountable and ensure equity and justice worldwide.

HUMANITY UNITED: TAI’s newest member, along with their allies at the Seafood Working Group, urges the Marine Stewardship Council to address labor abuses in the fishing industry. With 128,000 fishers subjected to forced labor and over 100,000 fatalities annually, they call for stronger protections and accountability to prevent exploitation.

TAI SECRETARIAT: Michael Jarvis, Executive Director of TAI complements his intervention at the recent 3rd Preparatory Committee meeting for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development with a call for donor investment in equitable tax systems, enabling fiscal resilience in the face of aid cuts. 

TOOLS AND TRENDS FOR FUNDER

Kevin Bolduc, Elisha Smith-Arrillaga, and Nina Groleger call funders to support nonprofits through political uncertainty, balancing agility, consistency, and equity. Lessons from past transitions can inform strategies for resilience and impact.

A new series by The Skoll Foundation and partners explores strategies for social transformation, including system orchestration, collaborative funding, government partnerships, mission-aligned investing, storytelling, and evaluation.

Philanthropic foundations are finding it hard to meet their commitments to localizing funding according to analysis from Publish What You Fund. While 26 foundations pledged support for locally-led development, mechanisms for tracking progress on commitments remain largely absent.

In this recent article from Alliance Magazine, authors call for a focus on building new models instead of simply trying to fight our existing reality. Philanthropy’s traditional impact frameworks are evolving amid calls for decolonization, localization, and trust-based approaches. 

ESSENTIAL WATCHING

The World Bank’s Coalitions for Reforms (C4R) Global Program, alongside OECD and TrustInside, held a two-part webinar series on the role of public trust in successful reforms. There are lots of insights spread across the two sessions.

FOCUSED TOPIC OF THE WEEK:

The Fragile State of the Global Information Ecosystem

The contemporary information ecosystem faces unprecedented challenges that threaten democratic processes, human rights, and civic engagement worldwide. These challenges manifest through government repression, corporate complicity, technological governance shifts, and emerging resistance movements.

In Cameroon, the Anglophone crisis exemplifies how political instability directly undermines press freedom. The decade-long conflict has resulted in over 6,000 civilian casualties and displaced 600,000 people. Journalists face systematic intimidation through threats, abductions, and imprisonment, compelling many to flee into exile. The forced closure of media outlets and intensifying repression have positioned Cameroon among Africa's most severe environments for press freedom violations.

Corporate actors frequently enable information control mechanisms across troubled regions. Open Secrets' investigation into MTN, a South African telecommunications multinational, reveals a pattern of complicity in internet shutdowns across multiple countries. Beyond service disruptions, the company faces allegations of corruption, tax evasion, and even facilitating terror activities in conflict zones throughout Africa and the Middle East. Case studies from Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, Cameroon, Uganda, and Nigeria suggest MTN has operated with minimal accountability, evading both legal consequences and regulatory oversight for extended periods.

Meanwhile, major technology platforms are implementing significant policy changes with far-reaching implications. Meta's modifications to content moderation protocols threaten to fundamentally alter digital civic participation. These changes raise serious concerns regarding misinformation proliferation and the viability of grassroots activism in digital spaces. The evolving governance structures at influential technology companies create an urgent imperative for philanthropic organizations to safeguard robust civic engagement mechanisms in this shifting landscape.

In response to these challenges, civil society is developing coordinated resistance strategies. For example, CIVICUS has established the Communicators for Civic Action network specifically designed to strengthen narratives supporting civic space, combat misinformation campaigns, and elevate grassroots voices. This initiative creates a collaborative framework uniting journalists, communications professionals, and narrative specialists to expand people-centered storytelling approaches and reinforce civic engagement principles.

ESSENTIAL WATCHING

Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, spoke with Foreign Policy on the state of rights in today’s context. He concluded with a reminder that “The right to an accountable government… is fundamental. That basic right is the one being challenged around the world today.”

JOBS 

CALLS

  • Amnesty International offers an 18-month part-time fellowship to examine shrinking civic space and grassroots resistance. Fellows will analyze trends, explore movements, and co-create a toolkit for defending civic space. Apply by March 6

  • In 2025, the Rockefeller Foundation will open applications for its Big Bets Climate Fellowship, available in the Asia Pacific Region and the United States.

  • Civitates’ Tech and Democracy open call supports organizations working at the intersection of tech and democracy, focusing on key EU regulations like the Digital Services Act and AI Act. Eligible non-profits and mission-driven for-profits can apply until March 14, 2025, at 23:30 CET.

  • Help shape the agenda for the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (Oct 7-9, 2025)! Vote on topics, share insights, and refine ideas before March 14.

  • Civicus is calling for proposals for the WeRise Campaign, a comprehensive and forward-looking approach designed to promote and protect Freedom of Peaceful Assembly (FoPA) as a fundamental right and tool to defend and expand the civic space. Deadline March 15, 2025.

  •  The Amazonia+ call seeks a managing organization for local forest governance projects led by women and youth in the Amazon. Grants up to 400,000 Euros for 10 projects. Deadline March 19, 2025.

  • Local cross-border investigative journalism grants available in Europe. Deadline March 27, 2025.

  • Call for submission of abstracts for a short paper and panel presentation at the 2025 Global Investigative Journalism Conference. Selected research papers will be presented at the 2025 Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from November 20 – 24, 2025.  Deadline 31st March 2025.

  • Publish What You Fund is offering free, online training on using the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)—the leading global open aid dataset. 

  • Working on the political economy of aid and development? Join PEADS2025, April 23-24, 2025 in Pitlochry, Scotland.

  • The Thousand Currents Academy in Atlanta, will bring funders and allies together to support unrestricted, long-term funding for Global South movements, fostering systems change through trust and accountability, May 19-22, 2025.

  • The 10th edition of the School for Thinktankers returns to Fundació Bofill in Barcelona in 2026. Submit your early-bird application. 

CALENDAR

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

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