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African Renaissance comes through the reinforcement of institutions

The African Union (AU) celebrates its 50th anniversary on 25 May with an extraordinary summit in Addis Ababa, under the theme “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”. The AU as it has been known since 2002 is the successor to the Organization of African Unity founded (OAU) on 25 May 1963 when 32 recently independent African countries [...]

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Anti-corruption heroes: an interview with Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa

In December 2008, Gabonese citizen Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa took a brave stand against corruption. Together with Transparency International France, he filed a legal complaint denouncing the alleged embezzlement of public funds in Gabon. This was part of the Biens Mal Acquis case, an investigation into several African presidents suspected of stealing public assets on a [...]

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Time to wake up Trinidad & Tobago: the Jack Warner affair

Jack Warner is a big name in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and in world football. He has been in politics and government for the past five years, most recently as Minister of National Security, and served on the executive committee of FIFA (world football’s governing body) and as head of the Americas football federation (known as [...]

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Too little transparency in new Czech law on political party financing

The Czech parliament is currently considering a new law to increase transparency in how political parties are funded. This should have been a reason to celebrate, given that Transparency International Czech Republic and other non-governmental organisations have been working on this for the past two years. But the law could and should have been so [...]

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Is Brazil taking a “U-turn”?

In Brazil, some members of the legislature are actively lobbying for a constitutional amendment that would make certain rulings by the Supreme Court subject to congressional approval. Not surprisingly, the current proposal by the Commission on the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship was put forward by members of the Workers’ Party, the main political group affected [...]

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Whistleblowing in Greece: an alternative to silence

In September 2012, the US Internal Revenue Service awarded Bradley Birkefeld with US$104 million, as he provided prosecutors with detailed information about the “consultating services” that UBS AG offered to rich clients, thus enabling tax evasion. Within two months, new legislation on whistleblowers’ protection for federal employees came up by the US President Barack Obama. [...]

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No one has all the answers: the positive role of civil society in Russia

Last week the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office sent to Transparency International Russia an official warning to register as a foreign agent. This came because the Prosecutor said TI Russia was shaping public opinion about government policies in the field of law enforcement and had an impact on the adoption by State institutions of laws and [...]

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Ushahidi: An Introduction to Anti-Corruption Mapping

This blog post is the first of a blog series on anti-corruption and transparency mapping by Ushahidi’s Heather Leson. The series will discuss best practices and feature some of the strategies to connect policy and action with online savvy. Ushahidi’s community strategy is aimed to connect topical mappers to build and learn together. Resources and [...]

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A bad week at FIFA with more to come

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

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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