WHAT'S NEW?
TAI Executive Director Michael Jarvis and expert Courtney Radsch argue that fighting online lies and deception requires a large-scale philanthropic response. Writing in Chronicle of Philanthropy they urge aligned investment to strengthen our information ecosystem. What does that ecosystem look like? See our visual map.
The World Bank offers a timely review of corporate accountability, the ability of different stakeholders to hold companies accountable, some of the gaps, and possible pathways for strengthening this process.
People are waking up to technology threats to societies - a YouGov poll commissioned by TAI member Luminate reveals that a majority of people in France, Germany, and the UK are concerned about the impact of AI and deepfake technology on elections.
Building meaningful alliances between multilateral development banks and private banking requires going beyond the usual model of doing business. Cesar Gamboa argues such an alliance has to be very clear about what it pursues, and that should be reducing global warming and fighting inequality!
The latest CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist highlights serious concerns regarding the exercise of civic freedoms in Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, Senegal and the United Arab Emirates.
Doing Business With Integrity, call for innovations under the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development - USAID, Deadline November 20, 2023.
TAI RECOMMENDS
Gabriel Aliu details the path for African calls for tax transparency, especially the push for public country by country reporting that can help counter aggressive tax planning, and tax evasion. Pair with our new paper on Defending Democracy from Illicit Finance and Kleptocrats that urges taking on the enablers of such avoidance.This paper lays out fundable opportunities to clamp down on financial secrecy.
GREEN ACCOUNTABILITY IN NUMBERS
Better Accountability, Better Finance is our new consultation paper authored by the Blended Finance Taskforce in collaboration with the The World Bank's Global Practice for Social Accountability and TAI. Embedding green accountability could save up to $100 billion in climate finance and save 3 gigatons of emissions a year. It is crucial for attaining more inclusive and equitable climate growth. Reach out and share your ideas for implanting accountability from global to local levels.
FROM OUR MEMBERS
LUMINATE:
EL PAÍS and Luminate have joined forces to create Women Leaders of Latin America, an information project seeking to shed light on the leadership role of women in the strengthening of democracy in the region.
MACARTHUR, PACKARD, HEWLETT, FORD, SKOLL, USAID:
Joined together around UNGA in endorsing a donor statement on committing to locally-led development with a new new Leadership Circle on the topic.
FORD FOUNDATION:
Martin Abregu says the future of global governance is collective, not top-down. He argues that today’s most pressing problems require broader collective action to ensure that solutions benefit everyone.
CHANDLER FOUNDATION:
Leslie Tsai makes the case for assuring more accountable and cleaner government as part of debt renegotiations.
FORD FOUNDATION AND USAID:
Joined together with Rockefeller Foundation to convene world leaders and more than a dozen philanthropic and private sector partners to announce investments totaling more than $255 million to deliver essential services and bring about tangible progress for citizens in countries experiencing democratic openings. Fellow TAI members Chandler and Skoll Foundations joined the Democracy Delivers effort, too.
TOOLS & TRENDS FOR FUNDERS
Learn about the equity-oriented approach to evaluating international cooperation building on Southern-led action research supported by Ford Foundation.
Read all the reports and reflections on last month’s African Philanthropy Conference. How does it compare to last year’s? Revisit our interview with Diakhoumba Gassama, Programme Officer, Gender and Inclusive Governance at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The role of INGOs, national and local groups continue to shift in development, a new report centered on experience in the conservation sector affirms the importance of building from local and evolving away from transactional relationships between international and African nonprofits.
A new blog from the ODI looks at how a new generation of professionals are seeking qualifications in data ethics, which will provide the foundations for AI and other transformative tech to serve us all better in the future. We anticipate more foundations hiring data ethicists in time.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING!
Making Governance an Inclusive Club. Luminate and its partners are working to break down the barriers that actively excluded women and young people from fully participating during the recent elections in Kenya and Nigeria. TAI Steering Committee member, Toyin Akinniyi talks with partners from Futurelect and Article 19 about challenges and solutions to supporting and growing political engagement among women and youth in Africa.
FOCUSED TOPIC OF THE WEEK
DEFEND THE DEFENDERS!
How can the world protect those protecting our planet? This was one of the hot topics at Climate Week NYC and sessions hosted by our members Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations among others. We need more participation but, above all, safe participation.
As we highlighted last week, according to Global Witness, at least 177 people were killed last year for defending the environment. A fifth of the killings took place in the Amazon rainforest. Murdered by organized crime groups and land invaders, environmental defenders were killed at a rate of one every other day in 2022.
Central America is another very dangerous region for citizen rights defenders. According to Front Line Defenders, Honduras stands out as the deadliest place in the isthmus, with Guatemala a close second and Nicaragua third. Connectas brings all the details (in Spanish).
HAVE YOU SEEN OUR PREVIOUS WEEKLIES?
JOBS AT TAI MEMBERS
Job postings at Hewlett Foundation - ONGOING
Job postings at MacArthur Foundation - ONGOING
Job postings at Open Society Foundations - ONGOING
Job postings at Luminate - ONGOING
Job postings at Ford Foundation - ONGOING
Job postings at FCDO - ONGOING
Job postings at Skoll - ONGOING
JOBS LISTINGS/OPPORTUNITIES
Director of People & Culture -Earth Rights International
Two part-time regional coordinators- UNCAC Coalition
Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean- Fisheries International Transparency
Initiative
Regional Coordinator for the Pacific - Fisheries International Transparency Initiative
Regional Coordinator for Anglophone Africa- Fisheries International Transparency Initiative
Communications Coordinator - Fisheries International Transparency Initiative
Director, Policy & Partnerships- Open Government Partnership
Programme Manager (Civic Power and Media)- CIVITATES
Programme Manager (Tech and Democracy) - CIVITATES
Program Manager for Latin America and The Caribbean- Thousand Currents
Research and Data Fellowship- Open Ownership, OCCRP and EITI (candidates from Armenia, Ecuador, Ghana, Mongolia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Zambia)
Transparency and Integrity Specialist- Inter-American Development Bank
CALENDAR
The Participatory Playbook - Launch event, Pople Powered, Sept. 27, 10 a.m. ET
RINGO Open House Introducing the INGO Board Action Pod, Sept 27, 10.00 GMT
RINGO Community Gathering, Sept 28
INTRAC Webinar: Decolonising Consultancy, Sept 31, 13.00
WINGS Forum, 3-5 October
Freedom on the Net 2023 Report Launch, Freedom House, October 4, 10.30am ET
On the Trail of Capital Flight: Book Launch, Thursday, 5, 5:30pm - 7:00pm EDT
Launch Event: Governance Action Hub, Wednesday, October 11, 9 - 11am EDT
Global Philanthropy Forum, San Francisco, October 17-19
Othering and Belonging Conference, Berlin, October 26-27
EDGE 2023 Annual Conference - Funding Boldly: Systemic Change and Alternatives, Berlin, October 18-20
Strengthening Democracy through Information Integrity, November 13-14
#ShiftThePower Summit, Bogota, 5-7 December
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 contact@transparency-initiative.org or