Learn and Adapt
A time for consolidation and reflection
Hewlett Foundation’s Coronavignette features Alan Hudson, discussing the learning opportunities presented by COVID-19 and how they could inform the next ten years of the governance and development agenda.
Is the Coronavirus Catalyzing New Civic
Collaborations for Open Government?
“2020 has been a year of developing new ways of working,
some of which may have a lasting legacy.”
We partnered with the Carnegie Endowment to speak with 125 civil society leaders across 20 countries, to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting civil society collaborations for open government reforms. The resulting new report, co-authored by Carnegie’s Abigail Bellows and Open Gov Hub Director Nada Zohdy, includes surprising findings for both elite and grassroots NGOs, along with key recommendations for NGOs, grassroots groups, and donors. The authors find that the pandemic has generated a global surge in public demand for government transparency and accountability. To seize this once-in-a-generation window for reform, elite and grassroots civic actors must bridge the divides between them. Elite-grassroots partnerships should be built on mutual respect, specialization of roles, and continued learning about which pandemic-era operational adaptations should be sustained. Donors should drive timely investment toward coalition building in places where it is missing, alongside more direct support to grassroots actors.
The authors will be hosting a Brown Bag Lunch discussion on this paper on Wednesday, December 16th at 12:30 PM EST. If you’re interested in joining the conversation, RSVP here!
Regaining Trust: Identity Politics during Elections | 10.29.20
Outside/In Portal Podcasts
In response to the election crisis, polarization of the US electorate, and post-election debates and transitions, our Outside/In series has evolved to include podcasts and blogs from colleagues on how their experiences in Nepal, Colombia, South Africa, and Côte D’Ivoire relate to current American politics, as well as videos from our key event series with Open Gov Hub highlighting takeaways from the conversations. We know international politics and events are connected; so are the learnings for governance challenges in the United States. We are now housing all of our insights from the series in a virtual space on our website, focusing on justice and inequality, elections, and COVID-19.
COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP)
Over the last few months we have been curating conversations through #Account4COVIDon transparency and accountability as related to COVID-19, specifically governments’ response and accountability measures, civic actors’ interventions to ensure government officials account for fiscal policy, platforms for related aid and debt-relief, and resource allocation and expenditure. A natural progression of initiatives like #Account4COVID is the launch of the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP), a collaboration with BudgIT Foundation and Connected Development (CODE), two prominent civic-tech non-governmental organizations spearheading the advocacy for openness, transparency and accountability in public finance in Africa. As the learning partner for the project, we plan to support our partners in understanding transparency and accountability frameworks in focus countries to devise strategies that combine citizen tracking and advocacy for reforms. We will promote collaboration and learning among local partners so they can be more effective and share lessons about using data to mobilize citizens, and are better able to demand improved government response to and recovery from COVID-19.
Declarations Podcast
“…presenting annual report and accounts to the national assembly, small things like that, making sure that reports are actually produced, that they contain data, and that that data is put into the public domain for debate, that’s one step in the right direction.”
– Dr. Jackie Harvey
Dr. Jackie Harvey of GI-ACE and Dr. Pallavi Roy of SOAS-ACE discuss the structures of political power in Nigeria and the underlying systems of corruption that culminated in the protests of the #EndSARS movement in this week’s Declarations podcast, the human rights podcast from the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge. To understand the ongoing #EndSARS protests, this week’s guests provide an in-depth look at the formal and informal political and financial economies at play in Nigeria. Dr. Harvey’s financial corruption research has addressed matters such as beneficial ownership and asset recovery.
Events
New Approaches to Anti-Corruption: Four Ignite Talks
Join Paul Heywood, Heather Marquette, Mark Pyman, and Janine R. Wedel at 9 AM EST on December 8th as they share research designed to help practitioners develop better ways to tackle corruption. Given existing approaches to combating corruption have often failed to have the desired impact, this event will explore and test more effective approaches as well as identify the key practical changes needed to help make progress on the agenda of rethinking corruption. Register for the event.
Book Conversation with Sarah Chayes
Celebrate International Anti-Corruption Day on December 9th and join a book discussion with Sarah Chayes, author of On Corruption in America: And What’s at Stake, and Milan Vaishnav, Director and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Chayes’ book takes a critical look at the United States’ long history of cultivating sophisticated networks of corruption that benefit the country’s top elite; networks that remain active today. Sign up for the event.
International Anti-Corruption Conference
Global Integrity will be moderating two panels at the International Anti-Corruption Conference on December 4th. The first panel at 10:30 AM EST will focus on the what, why, and how of building integrity across fields, industries, and individuals. The second panel will follow at 12 PM EST and will explore strategies and mechanisms used to catalyze anti-corruption results through the use of open data.
Noted: Holiday Reads
Izabela Chmielewska, Program Manager at the Open Gov Hub, is taking time for personal rituals with help from The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices, by Casper Ter Kuile.
Jorge Florez, our Fiscal Governance Manager, recommends Modelling Reform Strategies for Open Contracting in Low and Middle Income Countries, a report that evaluates the effectiveness and fit of open contracting reforms in different contexts, and provides insights as to when countries should pursue them.
Veronica Dickson La Rotta, our Communications Associate, is enjoying Vietnam: Rising Dragon, Bill Hayton’s journalistic account of Vietnam’s modern rise, political and economic trajectory, and the various challenges and governance initiatives sparked in the economic liberalization of the late 20th century.
Yeukai Mukorombindo, our Research & Learning Manager, is reading Tsitsi Dangarembga’s trilogy book series, Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, and The Mournable Body, following the story of a family in post-colonial Rhodesia during the 1960s.