This Week in Transparency: Disclosing Tax Data & Measuring Impact

Links

The G20’s Anti-Corruption Working Group will meet in Moscow in mid-February. Laurence Cockcroft, the author of Global Corruption, argues at Foreign Policy that the working group should focus on 1) finance sector transparency, 2) tax transparency, 3) political financing, and 4) defense industry contracting transparency. On a related note, Sheila Coronel of Columbia University’s Journalism School has compiled a helpful list of studies and resources related to tax data disclosure, including a website by a Norwegian newspaper that provides access to all tax payment information.

The International Budget Partnership released their 2012 Open Budget Survey with a handy timeline feature that permits users to compare rankings from 2006 – 2012. Albert van Zyl summarizes some of the findings in a blog post at the Open Budgets Blog.

At the Ushahidi blog, Lewis Kirvan summarizes the strategy of Kuhonga, a corruption-report-mapping exercise in Kenya that uses the Ushahidi platform and is similar to I Paid a Bribe. So far Kuhonga, which is hosted by the Africa Centre for Open Governance has received 18 reports of corruption. I Paid a Bribe, which is managed in partnership with Transparency International Kenya, has received 1,200 reports. There doesn’t seem to be collaboration between the two initiatives. Tiago Peixoto’s article “I Paid a Bribe. So What?” is always recommended when discussing corruption-mapping platforms. In fact, Peixoto’s arguments also apply to another mapping project profiled on the Ushahidi blog last week, iWitness Pollution.

This past week has seen several worthwhile reads related to philanthropy and evaluation. Bill Gates argues in the Wall Street Journal that good measurement can lead to incremental design changes that lower infant mortality rates, eradicate polio, and improve education. However, in a Financial Times article about the need for donors to collaborate more effectively, Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, “warns against the dangers of philanthropists putting too much emphasis on measurement at the expense of innovation.” Finally, the Hewlett Foundation has published an “Internal Working Paper” on their approach to evaluation. Lucy Bernholz has published a helpful summary blog post of the 30-page report.