Changing accountability mindsets: From workshops and reports to professors and imams

By on 1 May 2013 in Accountability, Education

Working on accountability in difficult contexts, it does not take long to realise the key shortcomings of established approaches to these issues – expensive workshops are held, lengthy papers are written and complex logframes are completed, but little changes on the ground. Some donors and NGOs are now much more creative – using new social [...]

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A Treatise of Banking Nature

By on 30 April 2013 in Accountability, Private sector

When the publication of his Treatise of Human Nature met with almost universal indifference, Scottish philosopher David Hume remarked glumly that it “fell still-born from the press”. Anthony Salz – Rothschild banker and City of London grandee – will understand those sentiments after the rather muted reaction to his own tome on human nature, a [...]

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A bad week at FIFA with more to come

By on 26 April 2013 in Sport

This time two years ago a barrage of corruption scandals hit the headlines about FIFA, world football’s world governing body. At the time its president Sepp Blatter promised to start a fast track reform process to “clean house”. Two years on little has changed. This week FIFA was faced with the resignation of one executive [...]

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Fake bomb detectors and the latest casualties of corruption

By on 24 April 2013 in Defence and Security, Poverty and development, Private sector

This article was first published on Trustlaw Yesterday, the British ‘businessman’ James McCormick was found guilty of fraud for selling millions of pounds worth of utterly useless bomb detectors to governments around the world, including a major contract in Iraq. A whistleblower alleges that McCormick paid millions of pounds in bribes to at least 15 [...]

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The Green Climate Fund – bringing the world of ideas to the board room

By on 24 April 2013 in Climate Change

The World Bank is a leading heavyweight in development investment, presiding over US$30 – $40 billion per year. Inaugurated last summer, the Green Climate Fund could soon dwarf that portfolio. It is estimated that by 2020 it will be channeling US$100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries – to help arrest the [...]

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Fish fraud: why traceability matters

By on 22 April 2013 in Accountability, Health, Private sector

In a guest blog post, Beth Lowell of Oceana reports on alarming rates of fish fraud in the United States. When you go out to your favorite seafood restaurant or pick up fish from the grocery store, you expect to leave knowing that you got what you paid for. But what if the fish you [...]

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L’Aquila: Rebuilding lives beyond corruption

By on 19 April 2013 in Cost of Corruption, Europe and Central Asia, G20

While politicians are busy recomposing the puzzle, people are struggling to make ends meet. Citizens are aware of the toll that corruption takes on their present and on their future and the youth is ready to speak up and claim its rights to fair and clean governance, as the following video shows.

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France acts on asset declaration

By on 18 April 2013 in Europe and Central Asia, Politics and government

Reposted from the Transparency International UK blog. It has been striking how far and how quickly France has moved towards asset disclosure by government ministers in recent weeks, with parliamentarians to follow if a new law is passed. Striking also that when political will exists, galvanised by public outrage, transparency is not so hard to [...]

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The Atlanta scandal: standardized testing and the corruption of US education

By on 16 April 2013 in Education

Over the past 12 years, an educational corruption scandal has been brewing in the southeastern United States.  In early April it came to a head when 35 former teachers and administrators of Atlanta’s public school system – including the former superintendent – were charged by a grand jury.  These individuals were indicted on 65 charges related [...]

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Letter to the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals

By on 15 April 2013 in Poverty and development

In follow-up to the Rio+20 meetings in June 2012, a group of 30 countries – known as the Open Working Group (OWG) – has been tasked by the UN to propose new goals on sustainable development. The timeline for work is to coincide with broader UN discussions about what should replace the Millennium Development Goals, [...]

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