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Archive for 'Foreign Assistance'
TED Video: Peter Eigen, Transparency International
Posted in: Anti-Corruption, Blog, Foreign Assistance, Video by Marco Puccia on April 28, 2010
Peter Eigen was one of the very first people to bring the issue of “corruption” to the mainstream. Institutions like the World Bank, his former employer, had policies against interfering in the internal affairs or politics of any member country — and at the time corruption was written off as merely a political issue. But Peter Eigen recognized the deeper social and economic consequences of corruption: It destroys credibility in institutions, tears apart societies, and serves as a barrier to economic growth and a black hole for investment in development projects. Peter Eigen was a trailblazer when he started Transparency International! Check out his TED talk here:
Lifting the Veil on Foreign Assistance and Lobbying
Posted in: Blog, Foreign Assistance, Government, Video by Marco Puccia on December 3, 2009
I’ve been following the Ujima Project for a few months since its launch back in September. It was put together by New York Times reporter Ron Nixon and has partnered with technology partner Appfrica Labs. There are several projects working on AID transparency, including AiDA which is a project run by DC-based Development Gateway where I worked for a while. In fact, I just found out that AiDA will be teaming up with Project-Level Aid (PLAID) and the Secretariat of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee to create a joint, easily accessible and independent repository of aid activities. See the announcement here.
Ujima is described as an investigative reporting tool that uses “reverse transparency” to aggregate foreign assistance data from multiple sources and present it in an open and easily accessible database. One of the most interesting features on Ujima is the “Lobbying” section of the site, where you can access how much the government of Uganda, for instance, is paying for firms to lobby the US government for favorable trade legislation. Here’s a video of Ron Nixon presenting Ujima at TEDxKampala in Uganda. Enjoy!
Also, check out this Appfrica podcast interview with Ron Nixon about the Ujima Project.
Calling out Corruption: A Global Effort at Risk
Posted in: Blog, Foreign Assistance, Government by Anand Chandrasekhar on November 9, 2009
With climate change, natural disasters, food shortages and economic recession wreaking havoc globally, the worst affected need financial assistance and committed governments to deliver aid. It is vital that resources reach the needy on time and intact. The diversion of funds earmarked for development discourages foreign aid and investment. It also undermines a Government’s ability to provide basic services to its citizens. As always, it is the poor who are worst affected by the scrounge of corruption.
Book Review: It’s Our Turn to Eat
Posted in: Anti-Corruption, Blog, Foreign Assistance, Government by Marco Puccia on November 5, 2009
It’s Our Turn to Eat, by Michela Wrong, tells the story of John Githongo — the famous whistle-blower of corruption under the Kibaki Administration in Kenya. Before picking up the book, I was concerned that I would be reading a lot of what I already knew — considering A. I wrote a paper on him several months ago, and B. I had explored a lot of the inner-workings of Kenyan politics during many-a-nights after Kiswahili class at a nearby bar with my professor going hours-on-end. As I began reading, however, I was enthralled by the insider and historical perspective that Wrong presents. I suppose to be expected, given Michela Wrong is a longtime friend of John Githongo and the first person he reached out to in his self-imposed exile in London.