WHAT'S NEW?
In a world where misinformation spreads like wildfire, Harriet Kingaby argues that philanthropic organisations and charities must recognise the urgency of investing in anti-misinformation efforts. Her message aligns with the recent call in the Chronicle of Philanthropy of TAI’s Michael Jarvis and Dr. Courtney Radsch to invest in building healthy information ecosystems.
Can we regulate our way out of the problems caused by disinformation? Just one of the questions driving conversations at the Asia Pacific Expert Meeting on Disinformation Regulation and the Free Flow of Information in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
TAI’s own Yery Garcia maps some disinformation and polarizing narratives in the most recent confrontation between Israel and Palestine (In Spanish).
In 2022 Digital Freedom Fund has launched an essay series to bring a wide range of EU Charter on Fundamental Rights experts to the foreground of digital rights discourse.
At least 185 Nicaraguan journalists have been forced into exile due to repression and persecution by Daniel Ortega's regime. Three share the challenges they face and what motivates them to continue reporting in the midst of this difficult context.
Finance Uncovered look at Chad - one year on from violent repression of pro-democracy demonstrators, and 30 years under a kleptocratic regime, they ask “what next?
The FACT Coalition analyze the linkages between U.S. financial secrecy and environmental crimes in the Amazon region (see Essential Watching for more on this theme.)
Open Ownership is halfway through delivering its 2022-2025 organisational strategy. They reflect on some significant successes and consider how to build to further impact.
Women on the Frontlines of Extractivism: How funders can support women environmental defenders draws on and synthesizes research from GAGGA, Global Greengrants, and SAGE Fund.
ESSENTIAL READING
Meet the winners of the Just Energy Transition Minerals Challenge supported by TAI members USAID and Chandler Foundation among others. They will test nnovations to strengthen transparency, accountability, and integrity in the global rush to meet the unprecedented demand for green minerals.
FROM OUR MEMBERS
HEWLETT FOUNDATION:
Is looking for a Program Associate to join their U.S. Democracy Program. This role will support the team's grantmaking and operations.
OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS:
OSF commissioned Intention 2 Impact (I2I) to design and execute a multi-faceted and comprehensive end-of-program evaluation to explore the achievements of its Fiscal Governance Program (FGP) from 2013-2020, as well as capture lessons learned to inform future strategy and grantmaking practices.
USAID:
The new Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance — which began operating on Sept. 12 — represents an effort to elevate these issues inside the agency, so that people who work on them can operate on a more level playing field with their better-funded counterparts.
TOOLS & TRENDS FOR FUNDERS
Transform philanthropy! But how? Read TAI’s Eszter Filippinyi’s takeaway from the 2023 WINGS Forum. Want to know more about the Forum? See the full coverage by Alliance Magazine.
A Nonprofit Wishlist for Funders highlights the urgent need for deeper collaboration between funders and nonprofits to tackle systemic inequities and complex social challenges.
Abi Knipe highlights a new report that lays out the ecosystem of actors who are building the narrative power in movements, as well as of the movements themselves. The text pinpoints what these players need to succeed and where there are gaps in resources and relationships.
The Nawi Afrifem Macroeconomics Collective new knowledge portal curates an open access repository to challenge the veil of exclusivity that surrounds economic thinking by offering African feminist alternatives to the narrow orthodoxies currently dominating policy-making spaces.
ESSENTIAL WATCHING!
Environmental crimes are the third most profitable crimes in the world. The U.S. is an easy place to hide dirty $ from these crimes in the Amazon. See this visual report: Dirty Money and the Destruction of the Amazon on YouTube.
FOCUSED TOPIC OF THE WEEK
Hidden Wealth
“Tax evasion is not a law of nature. It is a policy choice.” Spot on from the EU Tax Observatory team as they launch the first Global Tax Evasion Report detailing how the data suggests anti-evasion efforts are working or not. One striking quote: "Global billionaires have effective tax rates equivalent to 0% to 0.5% of their wealth, due to the frequent use of shell companiesto avoid income taxation".
The related release of the Atlas of the OffshoreWorld features time series and country-by-country data on offshore wealth, profit shifting, and the evolution of effective tax rates on labor and capital globally. Even the IMF First Deputy Managing Director is calling for limiting tax competition and evasion and better governance.
Just in case you want to geek out even more on tax avoidance and inequalities, the Tax Justice Network launched a new data portal that allows you to easily search, access and download from the wealth of information held in the Tax Justice Network’s database. It also holds data on various other indicators of tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions curated from external data sources. Plus, for a longer term perspective and sense of progress read the new study by On Think Tanks on the 20 year evolution of Tax Justice Network and its vital partners in the movement.
On the positive legislative front, the UK parliament passed a new Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act with potentially game changing reforms to corporate criminal liability, transparency & fighting SLAPPs. In a reminder of the cost of illicit flows and money laundering affects everyday livelihoods, a commission of experts has found that in 2019 alone, billions of dollars laundered through the city of Vancouver raised housing prices by as much as 7.5 percent.
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
Program Analyst, Civil Society and Leadership, Packard Foundation
Climate Democracy Accelerator Program- People Powered
Consultancy Opportunities for African Feminists - The African Women's Development Fund (awdf.org)
Rockefeller Foundation is searching for 15 driven young journalists across the Global South
Senior Policy Advisor for Environmental Crimes and Illicit Finance- FACT Coalition
Communications Officer- Thinking & Working Politically Community of Practice
Director, Climate- Solutions Journalism Network
Grant: Feminist Internet Research Projects- Feminist Internet Research Network
Policy Director- Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University
Senior Editor- The The Lancet
Co-Executive Director- The Engine Room
Various Consultancy positions- Open Ownership
Research Fellow- Center for Democracy & Technology
Advocacy Coordinator Consultant- Caribbean Observatory on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights
CALENDAR
Social Practice of Human Rights (SPHR) conference- November 2 - 4, 2023
The 2023 Democracy Forum | The Obama Foundation,November 3, 2023
Festival de Datos, November 7 - 9, 2023
Democracia Desconectada: El Impacto de cortes y bloqueos de Internet en América Latina para la libertad de expresion. November 8, 2023
Strengthening Democracy through Information Integrity, November 13 - 14, 2023
Defending Democracy: National Security and the Environment, November 15, 2023
Emerging Impacts: The Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Large, Unrestricted Gifts, November 30, 2023
#ShiftThePower Summit, Bogota, December 5 - 7, 2023
Conference of State Parties, UN Convention Against Corruption, Atlanta, December 11-15, 2023
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