Picturesque Pahalgam, a hill resort community in the India-administered Kashmir Valley, is known for its natural beauty and annual summer Hindu pilgrimage. Given the area’s appeal to tourists, it comes as no surprise that developers are anxious to build. But instead of balancing the interests of residents and developers, a 2005-2025 master plan for Pahalgam’s…
Our friends at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a leading organization championing transparent and accountable government around the world, are now accepting applications for their 2013—2014 fellowship competition. NED invites activists, journalists and scholars from emerging and developing democracies to participate in Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowships in Washington, DC. Over a period of five months,…
Today is a very bittersweet day here at Global Integrity. Our longtime friend and colleague Raymond June is returning to his homeland — the San Francisco Bay area — and leaving us. Raymond has long threatened to return to San Francisco, particularly as the Washington, DC summers have seemingly become worse and worse, so we…
Global Integrity recently signed to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and published our (admittedly limited) IATI-related financial information using the amazing, free Open-Aid Register, a tool to turn information into an IATI-compliant XML feed! Woot! For the less familiar, IATI is “a voluntary, multi-stakeholder initiative that includes donors, partner countries and civil society organizations,”…
In 2010, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision dramatically restructured political financing in the United States. With a 5-4 majority, the Court categorized political donations as a protected form of speech for corporations, unions, and individuals, raising plenty of concerns about transparency. For example, Super PAC donors disclose the names of…
Global Integrity was invited in July to Praia, Cape Verde, for a conference organized by the Alliance for Rebuilding Governance in Africa. The theme was “Africa Re-Invents its Governance,” and the venue was the Assembleia Nacional, a deliberate choice because Cape Verde has been a reputed model of good governance on the continent. Last year,…