WHAT'S NEW?
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is planning to create a detailed methodology for assessing the implementation of national access to information laws.
The US State Department’s Global Engagement Center documents what it calls concerted efforts of China’s government to influence the international information environment, including leveraging propaganda and censorship, promoting digital authoritarianism, and exploiting international organizations and bilateral partnerships. Plus, Freedom House detail Beijing’s increasingly aggressive tactics for foreign disinformation campaigns.
Lori Regattieri, Jessica Botelho, and Eliana Quiroz delve into the historical and systemic roots of media manipulation, focusing on the unique challenges posed by social-environmental and climate disinformation.
In this open letter over sixty organizations call for strong rule of law safeguards in the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.
FACT Coalition’s policy brief explains the momentum for greater multinational corporate tax transparency, including as a means to better inform investors of the risky tax practices of the businesses in their portfolios.
Alanna Markle explains how the practice of registering young children as corporate beneficial owners can create confusion or raise suspicion, especially when they are connected to politicians, oligarchs, or other individuals in the public eye.
Publish What You Fund’s new research details how the gender lens is applied to investments by development finance institutions. Gaps in disclosure and a lack of consistency are common problems.
Brazil’s supreme court has blocked efforts to dramatically strip back indigenous land rights in what activists called a historic victory for the South American country’s original inhabitants.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) celebrates its 20st anniversary and Marie Gay Alessandra Ordenes explains how new provisions now empower countries to use EITI data to mitigate corruption explicitly.
Pandemic treaty draft lacks accountability. Where are the teeth to any new international accord?
TAI RECOMMENDS
TAI joined experts this past week to look in detail at tracking donor climate finance commitments - just in time came CARE’s report claiming that 93% of the climate finance reported by high-income countries between 2011 and 2020 was taken directly from development aid budgets, while think tank ODI finds lagging promises, especially for climate adaptation funding.
FROM OUR MEMBERS
LUMINATE:
With numerous elections scheduled to take place between now and the end of 2024 in the EU and beyond, Luminate recently commissioned a YouGov poll that reveals a majority of people in France, Germany, and the UK are concerned about the impact of AI and deepfake technology on elections.
SKOLL:
Launched the #YearOfDemocracy campaign with 140+ organizations and activists as part of the Global Coalition for Tech Justice. This collective is urging Big Tech to undertake the vital responsibility of safeguarding over 65 elections scheduled for 2024.
MACARTHUR:
MacArthur President John Palfrey shares an evaluation of the foundation’s Equitable Recovery Initiative with innovative and rapid grantmaking that aimed to share power.
SECRETARIAT:
Michael Jarvis reflects on the uptick in references to “accountability” in development conversations.
TOOLS & TRENDS FOR FUNDERS
Are you trustwashing? Shaady Salehi notes that the rise of trust-based philanthropy has led to a dramatic increase in funders referring to themselves as “trust-based,” argues that only some are genuinely committed to this nuanced and iterative work.
Amid so much talk of decolonization, locally-led development, and shifting power, Sparkle Richards celebrates the “doing” prototyping model of the RINGO project, including a funder action pod.
In her introductory column for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Cora Daniels explores the innovative approaches of Black women leaders and why the sector should follow their lead.
Human Rights Funders Network launch the Human Rights Grantmaking Principles - a resource for funders trying to bring their practices into alignment with human rights values.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING!
Watch the video of this Alliance Magazine webinar introducing new research on the future of philanthropy and hear from philanthropists on how they are responding to the challenges of our times.
FOCUSED TOPIC OF THE WEEK
ELECTIONS ARE COMING!
TAI members are well aware of the wave of elections coming in the next twelve months (see From Our Members section above), but what do we know of motivating citizens to vote? New research undertaken in Zambia unpacks the motivations for political particpation and suggests that scholars may have overestimated the role of ethnicity compared to other drivers such as partisanship.
Elections are seminal moments in democratic accountability, but it was notable at the recent UN General Assembly discussions how much concern there is on democracy’s ability to “deliver” for citizens (see last week’s TAI Weekly for more). Stay tuned for our upcoming interview with Amina A. Salihu, Senior Program Officer at the MacArthur Foundation's On Nigeria program delving into the the question of how democracy must work to bring about development for it to be meaningful.
In the meantime, how to combat rising political disaffection, especially among youth, and susceptibility to polarization? Deliberative democracy has been held up as one antidote to this kind of democratic erosion, and a new evaluation brief from NDI helps us better understand how deliberative democratic processes may support vertical accountability during contentious elections and reduce partisan tensions.
Further inspiration may come from the 17 rooms initiative that prioritized global actions to mainstream democratic innovations structured around the Sustainable Development Goals. People Powered share results from the room on SDG16 that focused on identifying and prioritizing the top three actionable ways to mainstream participatory and deliberative democracy around the world.
What of confidence in the electoral process itself? Election observation is a popular strategy used by civil society and international organizations to promote election fairness, but does it work? Professor George Ofosu presents the benefits of credible elections and shows how election observation contributes to credible elections and political responsiveness.
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/CALLS
Transparency and Integrity Specialist- Inter-American Development Bank:
Regional Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)-UN Convention Against Corruption Coalition.
Regional Coordinator for Sub-Saharan Africa-UN Convention Against Corruption Coalition.
Senior Program Associate - Latin America and the Caribbean - Freedom House
Director, Global Energy Transition Initiative - ClimateWorks Foundation
Executive Director, Accountability Counsel
Don’t forget the OGP Local call for expressions of interest is now open! The new expansion of OGP Local has a planned intake of up to 50 new local governments in 2024. Take note of the following informational sessions and apply here!
Research consultancy (short-term, remote): review of evidence on the economic costs and benefits of beneficial ownership transparency.
Doing Business With Integrity, call for innovations under the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development - USAID, Deadline November 20, 2023.
Our Data Challenge: The power of beneficial ownership data. On the International Day for Universal Access to Information, Open Ownership is delighted to announce the winners of the Nigeria Data Challenge.
V-Dem is looking for country experts: mainly academics or professionals with specialist and documented knowledge in one or more domains, for a specific country. Among the areas of expertise are, for example, elections, political parties, civil society, media, or digital society. Application deadline: 30st of November Call for Country Experts – V-Dem
HRFN Membership Director - Applications due: 11 October 2023. Location: Global & remote
Tienes hasta el 15 de octubre - buscando periodistas en América Latina y el Caribe interesados en desarrollar historias periodísticas de profundidad en alianza con CONNECTAS Becas de Producción Periodística 2023 - CONNECTAS
FRIDA is looking for a new Interim Executive Director
Apply by October 18th! FRIDA Job Board - Interim Executive Director (applytojobs.ca)
CALENDAR
OECD Forum on Green Finance and Investment, 2-3 October
WINGS Forum, 3-5 October
Freedom on the Net 2023 Report Launch, Freedom House, October 4, 10.30am ET
Launch Event: Governance Action Hub, Wednesday, October 11, 9 - 11am EDT
Global Philanthropy Forum, San Francisco, October 17-19
2023 Keseb Virtual Global Democracy Champions Summit (hopin.com), October 24 - 26
Launch of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition’s new report, October 26, 2023 from 12:00-1:30pm EDT
Othering and Belonging Conference, Berlin, October 26-27
EDGE 2023 Annual Conference -"Funding Boldly: Systemic Change and Alternatives", Berlin, October 18-20
Festival de Datos, 7 - 9 November
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 [email protected] or